


Bringing My Demons Out

by EvilFriendOfMine



Category: One Direction
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Angel Harry, Angels, Demons, Gen, Hellhounds, Hunter Liam, Hunter Niall - Freeform, Hunter Zayn, Mentions of Suicide, Narry background slow burn relationship, One direction AU, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Supernatural Elements, Tricksters, Trigger Warnings, but they so cute, like their relationship is not the main plot, platonic ot4
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-17 04:50:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 72,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5854867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilFriendOfMine/pseuds/EvilFriendOfMine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall, Liam, and Zayn came to the U.S. to hunt monsters, but sometimes, in this line of work, things go wrong and people get hurt.  Somewhere between hospitals and crossroad demons lives are lost and friendships strained. </p><p>Despite Harry’s peculiar nature and Louis’ tendency to give people their just-deserts, the boys form a merry band of misfits, hunting monsters and having indoor water fights…but it’s all fun and games until one of the boys starts acting weird and other hunters start going missing.There are hunters, angels, tricksters, and demons, oh my!  And in this universe dead isn't always dead.</p><p>Or the 1d boys are in the universe of Supernatural and are hunting monsters around the U.S. and shit goes down. </p><p>This is pretty dark in some areas (there is a lot of angst), but some parts are lighthearted and funny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How It Goes From Wrong and Right

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first long fic and I honestly don't know how long it will end up being (I just keep coming up with more ideas for it).  
> I based this off of the show Supernatural, but none of the spn characters show up. I basically just plunked the 1d boys in that universe. There are moments and scenes of interaction between pretty much all the characters because I wanted to try and get little bits of each friendship in there. And if you are reading this for one boy in particular and he doesn't show up for a while, bear with me because they will end up with main roles later on it just has to build up to that character introduction. But most of these relationships are platonic (a little Narry might sneak in there), but there are going to be some really cute scenes between all of them.

Niall couldn’t stop looking at the blank eyes staring back at him. The woman was young, according to the police file she was only 28. Niall thought she looked younger than that and maybe that was why he couldn’t shake the image of her from his head. It was only a picture, after all. Well, it was a series of pictures of the same scene. The red-haired, blue-eyed, twenty-eight year old, named Carly Jensen, whose body was found three weeks ago, ripped to shreds, in the woods just off the highway.

The dim light from the tiny desk lamp that sat on small wooden table in the corner of the motel room was making his eyes hurt. Niall looked over and could see Zayn’s tattooed arm hanging over the side of the bed on the other side of the room. It was almost 2am, but Niall knew that World War 3 could be going on just outside and it wouldn’t wake Zayn. 

They drove over fifteen hours to get there after Niall saw the news about all of the animal attacks happening in the area. Zayn had hacked into the police files to get them copies of all the reports and pictures to try to establish some sort of pattern. Even though Niall was the one that drove the whole way there, Zayn was the one that said he was too tired to do research after such a long car ride. 

Niall looked from the photos spread out on the table to the list he was making in his notebook of all of the possible monsters they could be hunting. A wendigo was possible but not probable because they eat the entire body. A werewolf was more probable, but the moon cycle didn’t match up since there were six bodies found in the last month in a half on various days not just on full moons. Plenty of other monsters had the claws to do that kind of damage to the bodies, but it all seemed out of place for Niall for some reason. 

He ran his hands through his messy hair, which was only blond on top, but dark brown on the sides. Zayn kept giving Niall grief, because they would have to pretend to be college students, doing some sort of report for school to get any information from the police or the coroner’s office. Zayn was getting tired of all the vague answers and “ongoing investigation” lines, so he told Niall flat out that he wasn’t allowed to dye his hair anymore. Niall protested at first saying that he’d rather break into places under the guise of an idiot college kid than get caught pretending to be a FBI agent, but Zayn insisted that cases would be easier if they actually got the whole story from the police and took an active role in the investigation.

Niall sighed heavily, threw his pen onto the pile of crime scene photos, and rubbed his face. Maybe it was time to go to bed. He looked over at Zayn again and wondered how he always fell asleep so quickly. Niall turned off the light. He toed off his shoes kicking them under the table, then slinked out of his jeans, and crawled into his bed wearing only his boxers and a white t-shirt. 

 

Niall woke up the next morning with his blankets pulled up to his nose. It was strangely cold in the room and Niall couldn’t figure out why until he noticed Zayn wasn’t in his bed anymore. Zayn always got hot easily so Niall had to suffer through freezing car rides with the windows down and freezing motel rooms. 

For a moment all Niall could see was a haze of white as a pillow came flying across the room coming straight for his face. Niall tried to block it but his hands were caught in the blankets, allowing the pillow to hit him square in the face.

“Hey, get up.” Zayn laughed.

Niall groaned and the mound of blankets on top of him felt much heavier than he remembered. Niall looked over at Zayn’s bed and noticed that the bed was bare aside from the lone white sheet. Zayn must have put his blankets on Niall after he got up, knowing that Niall would be cold with the drop in temperature.

“Ni, come on. This case isn’t going to solve itself.” Zayn hit the blankets where Niall’s legs were.

Up by the pillow, Niall’s blue eyes and the messy blond tips of his hair poked out. “I don’t wanna. It’s cold out there.”

Zayn looked up and saw furrowed brows. “Come on, ya tosser.” Zayn threw another pillow and hit Niall in the face again. 

“Fine, but we are waiting to get breakfast,” Niall said, throwing the pillow back at Zayn but he jumped out of the way and just laughed at Niall. 

“Fine, but you might want to do something about that hair first there, Nialler.”

Niall ran a hand over his hair, feeling all the pieces sticking out. Niall made his way out of bed wrapping one of the blankets around him as he shuffled toward the bathroom. 

When Niall emerged from the bathroom, Zayn was leaning over the table in the corner looking at the mess of photographs and reports that Niall had left out the night before. “Pretty gruesome, innit?” Zayn said tossing the photo back onto the table. “You gonna be alright going to the coroner’s office to see the last body?”

Niall nodded weakly. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“I could go by myself, you know,” Zayn offered.

“For as much as I don’t want to see what’s left of that girl, I really don’t want you to have to do this alone. So, if it means that we’re both scarred for life, so be it,” Niall said with a faint smile.

After Niall finished getting dressed into his jeans and t-shirt, he and Zayn made their way out to the parking lot where Niall’s car was parked just outside their room. Of course, to Niall, it wasn’t just a car. It was his sweetheart. His ’71 Chevelle. Zayn was shocked that when they got to the states that Niall had not only chosen an American made car but that he chose a classic muscle car. It seemed odd, but when they went car shopping at the used car lot that was attached to a junk yard, Niall embraced his little bit of knowledge of cars and went for something a little different. It was matte black with white racing stripes going up the middle. 

They got into the car and as they made their way to the coroner’s office, Zayn dug through the glovebox looking for the student IDs he made for a nearby university. The boys still looked too young, especially Niall, to pull off being FBI agents so they pretended to be college students instead, American accents and all. It was early September, so they could get away with it, plus Zayn had emailed the coroner’s office earlier asking if they could come in and take a look at the most recent body for a paper they were working on about the psychology behind animal attacks (Zayn just made something up) and so the coroner’s office gave them a time for the appointment for this morning.

“So,” Zayn began. “What do you want to do for your birthday next week?”

“I dunno,” Niall shrugged his shoulders but kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road.

“Come on, Ni. There’s gotta be something.”

“I honestly have no clue,” he paused. “Can we just hang out, watch a movie, and order some KFC or something?”

“It’s your birthday, Nialler. We can do whatever you want.”

“Well, I just want to hang out with you and have a quiet night, given that our day job is so crazy.”

“Quiet night in, it is then!” Zayn said as Niall pulled into the parking lot of the coroner’s office.

As Niall started getting out of the car at the coroner’s office, Zayn looked down at Niall’s feet, noticing something he hadn’t before. “Niall, are you wearing blue and yellow striped socks?” 

Niall looked down at his ankles where sure enough, his colorful socks were showing. He looked back up at Zayn and gave him a wide grin as he then pushed himself up out of the car. Zayn hurried after him. “You know we are supposed to look professional…” Zayn whispered.

“What’s the fun in that? And besides, we’re impersonating college students not the FBI,” Niall chirped back with a small smile.

“If you get me and your pale Irish ass thrown in jail over fuckin’ socks, Niall, I swear to god...”

“Don’t be such a Debbie-downer, Zaynie-pooh. I know what I’m doin’,” Niall opened the front door and popped his eyebrows at Zayn. “Ya just got to have a little faith.”

Zayn followed behind Niall up to the receptionist, who was a small woman, probably in her late twenties, with a dark pixie cut. “How can I help you boys?” she said looking up from her computer.

Zayn stepped forward so that he and Niall stood side by side in front of her. “We have an appointment with Doctor Jacey. I emailed him about a paper we are working on for school and he said to come in around this time.”

“Ah yes, can I see your student IDs please. Can’t be too careful. I don’t want to be letting a couple of weirdos off the street tamper with anything,” she said with a chuckle. 

Zayn and Niall handed her their “student IDs” and she looked them over, then handed them back. “Alrighty, Kyle and Wayne, you can just go down the hall, first door on your left. Dr. Jacey should be expecting you.”

Niall and Zayn walked side by side down the cream-colored hallway to the door with “Autopsy” written on a plaque next to the blue door. The sudden cold air of the room hit them, making Niall shake slightly. This morgue, like most that they found themselves in, was intensely cold and sterile smelling. A middle-aged man in a white lab coat and grey tweed pants looked up at the sound of the door. 

“You must be the two boys from the college. Wayne and Kyle, right?” the doctor said offering each boy his hand. 

“Yes, sir,” Zayn said shaking the doctor’s hand. 

“You know, it’s not too often that we get visitors from colleges outside the county. I had to clear this with the police before I could give you boys an answer, but since they ruled these unfortunate deaths as animal attacks, they were a bit more lenient in having you boys come in. But, as your part in this goes, I hope that you would share any findings you may have about the type of animal that this could be,” the doctor continued to say as he made his way over to the wall of metal drawers. He pulled at one at waist height, revealing a mangled and unidentifiable female body.

“Unfortunately, this one has not been identified as of yet and remains a Jane Doe,” the doctor said with a sigh.

“Was there anything missing from the body?” Niall said abruptly getting a side-glance from Zayn.

“What do you mean by missing? Most of the body was rather badly mauled as you can see,” Dr. Jacey said looking at Niall with a confused face.

“I mean any organs or body parts?” Niall said attempting to make it sound like a less weird question.

“Most of the organs were rather torn up…”

“Was the heart missing though?” Niall said cutting to the chase.

“No, the heart was still there. Why do you ask? That’s oddly specific.”

“Well, something that we are also looking to include in our paper,” Zayn began, saving Niall from having to say anything else. “Which parts are eaten first and whether that is the same for all animals or just certain species?” Zayn didn’t really know what he was saying, and they went through this every time they had to go to a morgue during daylight hours, but each time the case was a little different and warranted different lies.

“Oh, but now that you mention it, there were not many signs of bite marks on any of the victims. Usually, there would be some teeth marks from the animals eating, but looking back at it; it seems like most of the bite marks that I noticed on the bodies were to the neck resulting in mass blood loss.”

“So, it seemed calculated?” Niall asked, looking up at the doctor. “Like whoever did this intended to kill them?”

“Whoever? Son, you mean whatever,” the doctor said. “Calculated or not, these attacks were made by animals. Probably a wolf or coyote.”

“Or you know,” Zayn began, taking the doctor’s focus off Niall. “It could be a dog. I mean something big, but that would explain the marks, wouldn’t it? If it was an attack dog that someone trained.” 

The doctor nodded at Zayn’s suggestion. “Another possibility, of course,” he said looking down at the body then darting his eyes between the two boys. “Is there anything else I can help you boys with? Or will that be all?” The doctor closed the drawer. 

“No, that’s everything. Thank you, Dr. Jacey, for your time,” Zayn said shaking Jacey’s hand.

“And sorry about the weird questions,” Niall said shaking the doctor’s hand next. “One of those, ‘the more you know’ type of things,” he added.

“No problem. If you boys think of any questions, feel free to call the office and I’ll do my best to give you an answer,” Jacey said ushering them out of the room.

“Sure thing,” Zayn replied quietly.

 

When they got back to the motel room, Niall threw himself on the bed letting out a long sigh. “Well, that was helpful, but not as helpful as I wanted it to be.”

Zayn threw his bag on the floor and sat on the edge of his own bed. “At least we got some answers.”

Niall sat up and looked at Zayn. “Yeah, we know it’s definitely not a werewolf, and if it was a wendigo there would be nothing left of the body at all, so that’s ruled out from the start.”

“Maybe a skinwalker?” 

“Could be. But the body count seems a little high and varied for it to be a skinwalker. They usually only attack if they feel threatened. And the police reports didn’t say anything about any weapons being found near any of the bodies.” Niall sighed again. “Though, maybe we are going about this the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?” Zayn looked at Niall with a confused look.

“I mean, maybe we should look into the victims a little closer.” Niall got off the bed and went over to the desk where the photos and personal information on the victims was still laying.

“But they didn’t have anything in common. Different classes, age groups, jobs, genders. Aside from them all being semi-well off there isn’t much to go off,” Zayn came over and stood beside Niall.

“Well there has to be something, Zayn.”

Zayn walked in a couple hours later with lunch. “Any luck yet?”

Niall was now sitting with his feet up on the desk. About an hour earlier, he devoured a half a bag of Cheetos, which prompted Zayn to go pickup something for lunch to tame the beast that was Niall when he was hungry. 

“Well,” Niall began with a pen clenched between his teeth. “I think I’ve got something, but I don’t think you are going to like it.”

“Do I ever like it? I mean, we hunt monsters for a living,” Zayn replied setting the food on top of all of the papers Niall had laying out.

Niall laughed and took his feet off the desk so he could face Zayn, who was sitting on the side of Niall’s bed. “I was looking back at the last few victims and that wasn’t doing me any good so I went back a little further and found something kind of interesting.”

After a long pause, “Which was?” Zayn said staring at Niall, who was looking between a couple of pieces of paper he had in his hands. 

“Oh, right,” Niall said putting the papers down and going back to his story. “About six months ago, there was another death, which was ruled an animal attack, that the police here didn’t know about which happened two towns over. The only thing was that the woman, uh…” he looked back over the papers. “Rachel Cook, originally lived here and moved ten years earlier after she got her first book published and it became a national best seller and by the end she was practically rolling in dough.”

“What does some writer have to do with this, Niall?” Zayn still didn’t know where Niall was going with this story.

“Well the book that she wrote was all about the supernatural and more specifically, demons.”

“I’m still confused, Niall. What does that have to do with a bunch of “animal attacks”,” Zayn said making quotey fingers. 

“Zayn, put two and two together. Some woman suddenly makes it big writing about the things that go bump in the night and ten years later she’s supposedly killed by an animal. And you said it yourself, all the other victims were “well-off”,” Niall said mimicking Zayn’s quotey fingers. “I think they were making crossroad deals with demons.”

Zayn thought it over but parts of it still didn’t add up. “But those people only became “well-off” a couple months or weeks before they died. So, where does that fit into your theory, Einstein?” 

Niall leaned in, “That’s the thing, Zayn. I think the crossroads demon in these parts is cashing in early.”

“So, the animal attacks are actually…”

“Hellhounds,” Niall interrupted. He had a smile on his face that made it seem like he was happy about this news, but Zayn just hoped that it was because Niall had finally figured it all out after how many hours of staring at the same five pieces of paper for the last two days.

“So, how are we going about righting these wrongs?” Zayn asked. “I mean, if it didn’t cross your mind already, hellhounds are invisible.”

“I did think about that actually,” Niall stood up and went for the food that Zayn placed on the table. “And I don’t think we have to deal with the hellhounds directly, because the crossroad’s demon is the one that controls the dogs so if we trap the demon, we can get them to drop any pending deals and if necessary, kill the bastard,” Niall said shoving fries in his mouth.

“And how do you propose we trap the demon?”

Niall licked his fingers and sat back down at the desk with his chicken sandwich. “One of us acts as bait,” Niall said plainly.

“Oh yeah, Niall. That sounds like a great idea. Why don’t we just dangle one of us in front of a demon who’s killed how many people?” Zayn said sarcastically.

“If we plan ahead, I think we could pull it off.” Niall shrugged.

“And what happens if the demon sends their attack dogs after us?”

“Well, hopefully it won’t get to that point, Zaynie-pooh.” Niall took a bite of his sandwich. “With some carefully laid devil’s traps, the demon killing knife, and the art of surprise, we’ll be golden. The only thing we need to decide on is which one of us is going to be the bait.”

Zayn looked up at Niall with a worried expression. He didn’t know why, maybe it was the casual tone that Niall used, but he felt like they had to decide something life changing. It wasn’t even the first time they had done something like this; after all, saving people tended to mean risking their own lives.  
“I’ll do it,” Zayn said. 

Niall was mid-bite, but when Zayn spoke, he stopped. “You sure about this? I think it might actually be my turn. You were the one that stuck your neck out with that whole vampire situation back in Phoenix.”

“No, it’s cool. You did most of the legwork on this case so far. I should pull some of my own weight.” Zayn nodded slightly and looked up at Niall with a small smile. “So where are we going to do this?”

“Pick a crossroads any crossroads,” Niall said pulling out a map of town from underneath the other papers.

 

It was almost midnight by the time Niall finished spray-painting the devil’s trap in the middle of the crossroads. They spent most of the day gathering all the things they needed to summon the demon and Zayn clipped his own picture from one of his old IDs and added it to the small container. The shallow hole was already dug in the middle of the devil’s trap. “You ready for this, Nialler?” Zayn asked hovering over the hole with the little wooden box in his hand.

Niall pulled the demon knife from his belt and sighed. “’bout as ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” 

Zayn placed the box in the hole and covered it with the loose gravel. It was a rather secluded area. There was one lone streetlight, but aside from that, there were mostly woods and small fields. It was getting cold, Niall was only wearing a white t-shirt and a light jacket, and Zayn, as usual, was wearing a graphic t-shirt with his black leather jacket.

Zayn stood alone in the middle of the devil’s trap waiting as Niall hid nearby. The car was parked near the side of the road on the left side from where Zayn was facing. 

Zayn looked around but still didn’t see anyone. His heart stopped for a moment when he couldn’t remember whether they had drawn the devil’s trap or if Niall actually had the knife. His mind worried for only a fraction of a sentence until he looked down and saw the faint black spray paint on the gravel road. He looked back up and was startled by a woman’s voice.

“Hey there, handsome.”

Zayn turned and saw a thin, dark haired woman, in a black dress, standing before him.

“I assume you are looking for me,” she said as her eyes flashed black.

“If you’re asking if I was looking for a low-life, bottom-feeder bitch, then yeah,” Zayn said as his lip turned up into a half smile.

The demon cocked her head to the side. “For someone that needs my help, you aren’t very grateful. So, I’m going to have to pass. You can keep your tarnished soul. As for me, I’ll be leaving.” She took a step back, but it didn’t take her long to realize something was wrong.

“Well, that would be a great trick,” Zayn said smugly. 

The demon looked down at the ground, noticing the faint lines of the devil’s trap. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Honey, I don’t joke around about things like this. And if it makes you feel better, we’ll only kill you if you don’t do as we ask,” Zayn said as his eyes shot up to look just behind the demon.

“We?” the demon said confused.  
Just then, a knife was pressed lightly to her throat and she could feel the heat of the body behind her. “Yeah, we,” Niall said wrapping his right arm around her and keeping the knife to her throat in his left hand to keep her from going anywhere.

“Fucking hunters. I’m impressed,” she said with a twitch of a smile. “I’m always looking out for a bunch of apes in flannel, but a couple of young boys, with pimples and hair gel. I never gave it a second thought. So, you haven’t killed me yet, so what do you want?”

“We know what you’ve been up to and I don’t think it’s very good for business when you kill off the customers ahead of schedule,” Zayn said flatly.

“Girl’s gotta have her fun.”

“Yeah, well you’re going to absolve any deals you’ve got in progress, and call off your dog,” Niall said tightening his grip.

“Or what? You’ll kill me?” she said smartly.

“It crossed me mind,” Niall glanced up, meeting Zayn’s eyes.

The three of them stood so closely together inside the devil’s trap that the world seemed to continue around them but they were living this scene in a sort of slow motion. 

“Or I could just take my chances,” she said. 

Zayn saw the look change on her face and before he could react, her hands flew out hitting him dead in the chest and Zayn’s entire body slid backwards. His heal sliding across the outer circle of the devil’s trap, breaking the line. 

Niall didn’t have enough time to react before she turned on him, and with a flick of her hand, he flew back through the air. His feet left the ground and Niall could feel himself plunging toward the ground, but instead, his entire left side slammed against the car. The back windshield cracked against his weigh and Niall could have sworn he heard a cracking sound come from his left knee. He rolled off the back of the car and hit the gravel ground with a thud. It took a moment for the air to refill his lungs and he lay there on the ground with the most intense pain rolling down his body. 

He could feel the blood running down the side of his face. He felt disoriented and at the same time, all he could think of was Zayn. He heard a loud whistle, which he knew came from the demon and then heard an ear-piercing howl in the distance.

Zayn scurried to his feet. “Niall!” he called out. 

The demon charged him grabbing Zayn by the throat. “No!” she yelled. “You both came here to kill me and now I’m going to kill both of you. Starting with your friend.” She clenched her teeth together and raised Zayn up, with hardly any effort.

The howling got closer. Zayn tried to get free. He tried to get to Niall, but the demon wouldn’t budge. He pulled and pushed against her, but her grip only tightened.

Suddenly, the noise wasn’t howling anymore, but heavy footsteps, running toward Niall. 

Niall could hardly move from the pain, but when the gravel began to move and the sound of panted breathing could be heard, he knew nothing could be of use. 

The invisible beast charged forward, its claws ripping into Niall’s chest. His skin tore open and blood began to stain his shirt. Niall screamed out in agony, as the hound clawed at first shallow cuts down the right side of Niall’s neck then, got deeper and deeper as it went down. Niall could see nothing, and could only hear and feel the beast’s presence as it tore through his entire body. Niall couldn’t fight back and only screamed. “Zayn!”

It was a wrenching scream, which Zayn had never heard before. He panicked and began to fight back against the demon using everything he had. He grip on his throat dropped as he pushed her backwards. “Niall!” he yelled out again. She fought back against him to reclaim her dominance. “Stop this! Niall!” he screeched. Zayn lunged forward out of her grasp and made a mad dash for the knife that Niall dropped on the other side of the circle. Knife in hand, Zayn came at the demon plunging the blade into her chest just below the collarbone. She screamed out and Zayn removed the knife from her chest preparing to strike the next blow. 

The demon pushed him back and he slid across the gravel. The last thing he saw when he looked up was the defeated look on the demon’s face as she vanished from sight. The clawing and guttural sounds had desisted and it was disturbingly quiet. 

Zayn clambered to his feet and looked to the area beside the car, where Niall lay motionless in the road. The gravel twisted under his feet as he ran, sliding to Niall’s side. 

Niall’s entire body seemed to be covered in blood. Claw marks ran up and down from his neck to his ankles. His face was utterly pale and his eyes were heavy-lidded. A slight breath pushed his tattered chest up and down still and blood escaped his lips. With a heavy, choking cough, blood spurted and bubbled from his thin mouth. 

“Ni?” Zayn’s shaking hands went to Niall’s face. He was afraid to touch him. Like his remaining skin might just peel off. “It’s gonna be okay,” Zayn said quietly. Zayn scooped his left arm under Niall’s arm and along his back as Zayn’s other arm lifted under Niall’s legs, at his mangled knee. 

As Zayn carefully lifted Niall off the dark gravel, Niall head slumped back having no tension to keep it held up. That’s when Zayn noticed how much more blood was now seeping into the dirt under the gravel road. Zayn carried Niall to the passenger’s side of the car and opened the door with the hand under Niall’s legs. Zayn’s mind slipped back to the few times that Niall passed out at various pubs and bars and Zayn had to carry him to the car. However, this was different, because this time, instead of Niall smelling of beer and smoke, all Zayn could smell was the iron-y aroma of blood. 

Zayn slammed the car door closed and ran to the driver’s side. He fumbled with the keys at first but as soon as the car started, Zayn took off toward the nearest hospital.

He didn’t remember most of the drive, but he remembers looking over at Niall and wondering if he was too late, because Niall seemed far too still in the seat beside him. 

Zayn came to a screeching halt outside the hospital and once again ran around the car to get to Niall. He scooped him up, the same as before and went as fast as he could toward the automatic doors, which seemed to welcome them into the lobby of the emergency room like angels into heaven. “I need help!” Zayn managed out. It came out more of a plea than a yell.

Suddenly a gurney was wheeled in front of him and then Niall disappeared down the hallway surrounded by doctors and nurses. Zayn couldn’t even move. His mind raced through the look on the faces of the doctors and nurses as he laid Niall down, as if he had brought an already autopsied and embalmed body into their ER.

Zayn looked down. His hands and clothes were covered in Niall’s blood. He took an unsteady step forward and left a bloody boot print on the floor. He followed the trail, which led all the way back out to the car. He looked back up and down the hallway. Everything had gone so wrong.


	2. This Life for One More Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit heavy so buckle up. So, I think I'll be able to post within two weeks, so there's no exact day I'll post, but I've been posting my progress on my [Tumblr](http://irishsunshine-n-l-l-h.tumblr.com/) as I'm writing the chapter's so follow me for updates. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!! xxoo Amy!

Zayn stood frozen in the middle of the ER. His eyes glued to the hallway where Niall had disappeared. He didn’t know what to do. His feet wouldn’t move and his heart wouldn’t stop racing. His concentration broke when a wide-eyed nurse approached him. 

“Sir, are you okay?” she asked hesitantly. She was looking him up and down. 

There was so much blood down the front of him, she didn’t know if he was hurt as well, but in his mind, he knew that it was Niall’s blood and not his own.

“I’m…I’m fine,” he replied weakly. His eyes were still plastered to the hallway. “I…I…I don’t know…”

“Sir, what is your name?” the nurse asked in a comforting tone.

“Z…Zay…Zayn.” 

“Zayn? Alright, I’m Lisa. I know you are worried about your friend but he’s in very good hands and the doctor’s here are going to do all they can to help him,” she paused. “Hey, Zayn? Look at me, sweetheart.”

Zayn blinked and his eye sputtered looking down at the nurse. She was a short, slightly over-weight, pale woman in pink scrubs and her light brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun.

“Is there someone you need to call and get in contact with?” she asked.

“I…I…” was all Zayn managed to say.

“Alright, how about we get you cleaned up?” she said with a faint smile.

Zayn nodded and the nurse brought him to a room and sat him down in a chair next to the sink. “What’s your friend’s name?” she asked as she ran some paper towels under the water.  
“Niall,” Zayn choked out staring at the floor.

Lisa nodded and began gently wiping at the blood on Zayn’s hands. “Niall? Is that Irish?”

Zayn nodded.

“Is that where you boys are from?” 

Zayn shook his head. “No, I’m from Britain, but Niall…he’s from Ireland.”

“Ah, I hear it now in your voice.” She smiled. “How’d you two meet then?”

“Singing. We both tried out for this competition, but after it was over we stayed friends.”

She smiled down at him. He didn’t feel like he was being interrogated with all her questions, but it was getting his mind off Niall’s current state and allowing his breathing and his heart to steady in rhythm. 

Zayn looked up at the woman. “Thank you,” he said with a meek smile.

“You’re very welcome, Zayn.” She managed to get most of the blood off Zayn’s hands and arms, but there wasn’t much she could do about his blood soaked t-shirt. She threw away the paper towels and rubber gloves she was wearing in the appropriate place. “Is there anything I can get you?”

Zayn shook his head. “No…” he could feel the tears stinging the back of his eyes. “I should probably…call someone.”

“Well, let me know if there is anything else I can get you or if you need help contacting anyone, alright?” She smiled a little bigger this time. “Come on.” She put her hand gently on Zayn’s shoulder and led him out to the waiting area.

“I uh…” Zayn took the keys from his pocket. “I should probably move the car.”

Lisa laughed. “I can get someone to do that for you if you’re not feeling up to it.”

“No, it’s alright. I should probably grab some clothes from the trunk anyway.” What he was saying made perfect sense aloud, but in his mind, Zayn wasn’t sure what he was saying at all. Niall’s blood still covered him and for a second, he thought that he wouldn’t want Niall to see it, but he wasn’t sure if he’d ever even see Niall again.

He moved the car over to visitor parking and opened up the trunk, digging through the bags and miscellaneous crap that was in the back of Niall’s car. He found one of his bags and took the whole thing back with him inside the hospital to the bathroom. He slid off his leather jacket and now saw in the mirror that the entire front of his t-shirt was red. He carefully slid his arms from the sleeves and then over his head. There were still remnants of blood down his torso where it had soaked through. 

He grabbed a bunch of paper towels from the dispenser, ran them under the water and began wiping himself down. He went through a few paper towels before he was finally, at least relatively, clean.

He dug through his bag, found his black Nirvana t-shirt, and slid it over his body. He got a few more paper towels and began wiping at his leather jacket, where the blood had started to dry already. Once he was done, he pulled his cell phone from his back pocket. He went through his contacts trying to decide whom to call first. Zayn couldn’t even fathom calling Niall’s dad and at this point he didn’t know anything about Niall’s condition to even tell him anything. Then he landed on the next name that popped into his head and called it.

Two rings in and the person answered. “Hello?”

“Liam?” Zayn said quietly. “It’s Zayn.”

“Oh, hey mate!” Liam said brightly. “You get a new number? I didn’t recognize it.” Liam laughed. “So, what do I owe this pleasure? How are you? How’s Nialler?” 

“Li,” Zayn interrupted.

It was something about Zayn’s voice that made Liam stop. “Zayn, what’s wrong?” he said worriedly. 

“It’s Niall, Li. I don’t know how bad it is, but it isn’t good. They haven’t told me anything yet.” He paused. “There was so much blood, Li,” Zayn said weakly. 

Zayn could hear Liam’s faint whisper of “Jesus Christ” through the phone. 

“I need you here, Li. I can’t…I can’t…” Zayn stumbled over his words. “What am I gonna do if…I just… You need to get here as soon as possible, Li. If he…Oh Christ, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Zayn, take a deep breath, mate. Where are you?”

“North Dakota…Clayton Memorial,” Zayn said trying to keep his tears from falling. 

There was a long pause. “Alright, I’m in Chicago right now; I can be there in about twelve hours.”

“It’s Niall, Li…this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I know, mate. You call me if anything changes, alright?” Liam paused. “He’s gonna be okay. I’ll see you soon.”

Zayn ended the call without saying anything else. He shoved the phone back in his pocket, threw his jacket over his arm, picked up his bag, and went back out to the car. 

He looked up and noticed the crack in the back windshield. There were faint signs of blood around the center of the fractal. He didn’t see it happen, but maybe him imagining it was even worse. Knowing that was where Niall hit his head. He remembered the blood coming down the side of Niall’s face. He couldn’t bring himself to focus on any other part of Niall at the time. The memory of it seemed even worse. 

Zayn went back inside to the waiting room and sat in one of the chairs. It had already been over an hour and he just sat there, filled out some paperwork for Niall, then going up and down through his contacts, wondering if there was anyone else he should call. He thought about calling his own parents, but knew that wouldn’t do much good. He would just have to wait for Liam, which is the only thought that kept his mind at ease. 

Liam had this way of comforting people that Zayn never really understood. He had seen it back in 2010, when they all first met each other. Liam was the level headed one that kept everyone else in check. It was only a few months since Liam went his separate ways from Zayn and Niall. It didn’t have anything to do with the group dynamic or the friendship with each other, but it was mostly about covering more ground. It was suggested at one point that all three of them split up, but they knew that Zayn had a habit of disappearing for long periods of time without contacting anyone.

“Excuse me.”

Zayn looked up and there were two police officers standing in front of him.

“Are you the one that brought Niall Horan in?” the one asked.

“Yeah. Can I help you with something?” Zayn said apprehensively.

“We just need to get a statement from you and ask you a few questions about what happened.”

“Oh, okay.” Zayn shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

The two officers sat down opposite him. “I’m Officer Kramer,” the blond one said. “And this is Officer Renly.”

“I’m Zayn…uh Malik.” Zayn hadn’t even realized that he used both his and Niall’s real names when he came in here. Their names were now on the hospital paper work and a police report.

“Can you tell us what happened tonight?” Officer Kramer said taking out a pen.

“Um, we were just driving around and we thought we heard something, so we pulled over and uh, Niall got out of the car and he went into the woods. I just waited by the car and that’s when I heard the sound again and then I heard Niall yelling. I went in after him and…and I found him lying on the ground and he wasn’t moving. I didn’t know what to do so I brought him here.”

“And did you see what attacked him?” Officer Renly asked.

“No…it was really dark and Niall was just…” 

Lying was easy for them when it came to making things up with the cops, but it seemed wrong to lie about what really happened to Niall. This lie wasn’t that far from the truth. Either way, Niall was still dying and no amount of lying could change that.  
“Can I ask what you boys are doing in the area?” Officer Kramer asked.

This was the question that Zayn had the most problems coming up with a lie for. Niall usually covered this one. He usually looked up event in the area to use as their cover, but Zayn had no clue about any of that right now. “Oh. We were uh… we were here looking at the university.”

The two polices officers exchanged looks, but when they started to stand up, Zayn felt his entire body relax. 

“Alright, that’s all for now, but if you think of anything else call.” Officer handed Zayn a business card with the number for the local police station printed on it.

 

It was over five hours later before a doctor finally came out into the waiting area. He was a tall, slender man, with thin-framed glasses, and even though he only looked to be in his late thirties, already had a receding hairline. The doctor went up to the nurse, Lisa, and whispered something to her, which she then pointed over at Zayn.

Zayn was absent-mindedly staring at the floor when the doctor came over. 

“Zayn, right? I’m Dr. Mason,” the doctor said.

Zayn looked up at the doctor slowly then when he comprehended what was going on, he sat straight up with wide eyes. “How… How’s Niall? Is he okay? Can I see him?” Zayn stood up.

“Mr. Horan sustained serious injuries; major blood loss, contusions to his liver, abrasions to his stomach, broken ribs, collapsed lung, his knee was dislocated, and a severe head trauma. We lost him twice during surgery, but we were able to bring him back. By all accounts, he should not have made it this far to begin with.”

“What’s that even mean?” Zayn searched the doctor’s face.

“He is very weak, we’ve done all we can for him, and we are going to make him as comfortable as possible, but—”

“What do you mean ‘making him as comfortable as possible’?” Zayn said angrily.

“It means that your friend doesn’t have much time left. And you need to prepare for that,” Dr. Mason said steadily.

“What? No. You’ve gotta be...you’ve gotta be joking. He…he can’t…what am I….what am I supposed to do?” Zayn’s breathing quickened and his heart was beating so fast he felt like he might pass out. “How…how much…how much time does…”

“It could be hours, days, weeks, it really depends on him. He’s lasted much longer than most would up to this point. It’s all up to him,” Dr. Mason said quietly.

“Can I…can I see him?” Zayn said trying to hold himself together.

“They should be finishing up in his room, but once they are done you are can see him.” Dr. Mason looked at Zayn sympathetically and put his hand on Zayn’s shoulder. “If you need anything just ask one of the nurses. I am truly sorry about your friend.” Dr. Mason walked away leaving Zayn by himself.

He went back over and sat down in the waiting area. He pulled out his phone and there was a text from Liam.

About halfway there.

Zayn wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell Liam at this point. Dr. Mason was not very clear on how long Niall had and if it was going to be in that “hours” range he mentioned, Niall might be gone before Liam even got there. The strange thing about it thought, was that Zayn felt like once Liam got there everything would be okay, but in reality, once Liam got there nothing would change and there would be two of them there waiting for Niall to die. 

Zayn had a feeling that the text was only a simple statement with no questions, because Liam didn’t want to know how Niall was doing…that maybe he thought that if he didn’t know it was possible that Niall was all right.

“Zayn?” Lisa was standing in front of him.

Zayn looked up at the woman and he could see the sympathy in her eyes.

“Niall’s room is ready. You can go see him now, if you want.” She smiled and even though it was meant to be comforting, it made Zayn’s heart sink.

“Oh, okay.” Zayn stood.

“Come on, sweetheart. I’ll take you to him.”

It was a quiet elevator ride to the third floor then down the hall to room 28. 

The first thing Zayn noticed was Niall’s hair lying flat. Maybe his eyes just focused on that because he didn’t want to look any further. Beyond that, the strangest thing was Niall’s eyes. Zayn was so used to seeing Niall’s bright blue eyes staring back at him that it threw him off to see them closed. 

There was the breathing tube and the white bandages that went up Niall’s neck and down his arms. There were stitches on the left side of his forehead as well as a purple-red bruise forming around it. His left knee was elevated slightly and he just seemed utterly still aside from the machine pumping his lungs full of air making his chest go up and down in an unnatural manner. The heart monitor beating steadily in the background made Zayn feel sick. 

Zayn reached his hand out and touched the bed. His hand was shaking and he could feel the heat in his face as teared pricked his eyes. He brought his hand up and wiped away the tears now falling down his face. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to you.” 

Zayn sat down in the chair beside the bed, he wanted to reach out and hold onto Niall’s hand as if that would keep him there a little longer, but he was so afraid of hurting Niall. Other than some heavy bruising, his skin was so pale. He already looked dead.

Zayn just stared at Niall wondering if just maybe he would open his eyes and this all would be over. He stared at Niall for hours, until the Dr. Mason walked into the room with a redheaded and a gray-haired nurse following behind. 

“If you could please wait outside, Mr. Malik. We just need to check a few things,” Dr. Mason said politely. 

The redheaded nurse smiled and held her arm out toward the door. “Come on, we can get you something to eat,” she said with a smile.

Zayn stood hesitantly and looked back at Niall one last time before leaving the room. 

She led him down the hallway and over to an area where there were vending machines near the waiting area. “You going to be alright? I have some rounds to finish up.”

Zayn only nodded and the nurse sauntered off down the opposite hallway. He stood there just staring at the bags of chips and candy stuffed into the vending machines. He wasn’t hungry, but he wanted to at least look like he was trying.

“Zayn?” said a familiar voice.

Zayn turned and saw Liam was standing only a few feet away from him. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the brunette boy in front of him. “Li.”

Liam stepped forward and enveloped Zayn in his arms. Zayn’s head tucked into Liam’s neck and his arms wrapped around Liam’s waste. Zayn let everything go and sobbed into Liam’s chest and Liam just held on even tighter. 

“He’s gonna die, Liam,” Zayn said in between sobs. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Liam didn’t say anything.

Liam followed Zayn to Niall’s room and they got there just as Dr. Mason and the gray-haired nurse were leaving.

“How is he?” Zayn said carefully.

“No change,” Dr. Mason said he looked at Zayn then to Liam. “I’m sorry, boys.” Dr. Mason turned and walked down the hallway. 

Zayn and Liam exchanged a concerned look and then Liam followed Zayn into Niall’s room. 

Zayn didn’t know if Niall looked worse than before or if it was just his imagination, but when he heard a slight gasp leave Liam’s mouth, he couldn’t help but think that Niall did look worse than before.  
“Jesus Christ,” Liam breathed out. “I…I didn’t really know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t this.” Liam walked along the bed running his fingers along the blankets. His fingers grazed Niall’s hand and he flinched slightly at how cold Niall felt. Tears fell from his eyes and he looked over at Zayn. “What are we gonna do?”

Zayn shook his head and he started to cry again. “I don’t know,” he said quietly.

 

Zayn and Liam spent most of the day sitting at either side of Niall’s bed. Neither of them said very much and Liam got up to get them both some tea, but came straight back to the room. They wouldn’t say it aloud but they both knew that they weren’t waiting for Niall to wake up, though they both hoped for it, they were waiting for Niall to die. 

Anytime there was an abrupt noise from somewhere else in the hospital, they both snapped up and looked at from Niall to the machines that were attached to him. 

It was starting to get dark when Liam finally spoke. “Zayn, we should call someone.”

“Who’re we supposed to…it doesn’t matter, Liam. We could call every person on this planet, but it’s not going to do any good.”

“We should at least call his mum and dad. Give them a chance to say good—”

“No, don’t you dare say it, Liam,” Zayn cut him off. “We’re not doing that. Not yet.” Zayn took a long pause and neither of them said anything, but just stared at Niall. “Stay here,” Zayn said as he got up and started putting on his jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Liam looked at him confused. Zayn hadn’t left Niall’s side all day now he was just going to leave. It didn’t make any sense.

“I just gotta take care of something real quick. I’ll be back in a few hours,” Zayn said with his back to Liam.

“Zayn, what could you possibly have to do right now?”

Zayn turned to face Liam. “There are some loose ends on the case and…” Zayn paused seeing the worried look on Liam’s face. “I’ll be fine, Li. Just stay here with Ni. Let me know if anything happens.” Zayn rushed out of the room before Liam could get another word in and left the hospital in Niall’s car.

Liam sat back down and looked at Niall. “He’ll be back. Don’t you worry,” he said taking Niall’s hand. “Don’t you worry.”

Liam watched Niall for a long time, Niall’s chest going up and down and the beeping of the heart monitor making a steady rhythm. “Do you remember the last time the three of us were together?” Liam smiled at the memory. “We acted like it was the last day we would ever see each other. And we just sat there drinking and talking. You had your legs over the side of the couch and your head was resting on my lap…and I remember you looking up at me,” Liam paused holding Niall’s hand in both of his. “You looked up at me and had this look in your eyes like you were never going to see me again.” Liam wiped his nose. “I thought about staying, you know? After you looked at me like that. I thought about stay with the both of you just to make sure you never looked at me like that again.” Liam peered down at their intertwined hands. “I should have never left you, mate, and I’m sorry.” He glanced back up at Niall. “I’m so sorry, Niall. I’m so fucking sorry.”

The beeping of the heart monitor hitched and then began frantically beeping. Niall’s body convulsed and shook. Liam panicked and jumped up out of the chair. “Somebody help!” he called. A flood of doctors and nurse rushed into the room.

“Sir, please wait outside,” the one nurse said to Liam. 

“I can’t leave him,” Liam panicked.

“You need to wait outside.” The nurse ushered him out of the room and closed the door.

Liam’s back hit the wall with a thud and he slid to the floor, his hands and arms cocooning his head with his knees held tightly to his chest. 

The door burst open and Niall was being taken from the room and down the hall.

Liam jumped to his feet. “What’s going on?” he called after them.

“We’re taking him up for some scans,” one of the doctors said as they disappeared, with Niall, into the elevator.

Liam went down the hallway in the opposite direction toward the reception and waiting area. He pulled out his phone and dialed Zayn’s number. It rang and rang before the voicemail picked up. “Zayn,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something’s happened with Niall. Machines were beeping and they kicked me out of the room and then they took him up for scans. I don’t know what that even means, but I haven’t heard from you in two hours and you really need to get back here, mate.” Liam ended the call and sighed heavily. He didn’t know what to do. Whether he should stay there, go back to the room, go looking for Zayn, ask someone about what’s going on with Niall. He didn’t know.

Liam sat in the waiting room for over an hour before he decided to do any investigating. He would have figured that there would be news by now, but no one had come to find him. He walked up to the receptionist. She was an older, slender woman with short gray hair. “Um, hi. I was wondering if you had any information about Niall Horan. They said they were taking him for scans, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I just wanted to make sure he was still…” Liam paused. “I wanted to make sure he was okay.”

The woman smiled at him. “Are you family?”

“Uh, no. He doesn’t have any family here. I’m just a friend, but Zayn filled out all the paperwork for him, but he had to take of something so he’s not here right now. I was in the room with Niall before…”

“We usually only give that kind of information out to family and emergency contacts, but I’ve got a note here from Lisa down in the ER about Mr. Horan and his extended family.” She smiled and typed something into the computer. “Uh, it looks like they are bringing him back down as we speak. So, you can go see him.”

“Thank you.” Liam smiled at the woman and went back down the hallway toward Niall’s room. They were just wheeling him back into the room as Liam came down the hallway. The strangest thing about what Liam saw was that there was no longer a tube coming out of Niall’s mouth and nose but instead there was just a regular tube going to his nose and around his ears. 

“How… how is he?” Liam said hesitantly as he watched the nurses hook up all the machines back to Niall. Liam just stared at Niall when the doctor approached him. 

“Mr. Horan’s lungs are functioning properly and he’s able to breathe on his own. The initial results of his scans tell us that many of his internal injuries are healing and all his vital signs are stabilizing.” 

“Wh…What does that mean?” Liam looked up at the doctor.

“It means that by some miracle, he has the chance to make a full recovery. We honestly can’t explain it, but he should count himself very lucky. Much of what happens next is up to him. His injuries were very extensive so he’s not out of the woods quite yet. We are going to continue monitoring him and we just need to wait and see for if or when he wakes up.”

“If or when? What the bloody hell does that mean?”

“There isn’t an exact science to this, as funny as that sounds. Everyone’s affected differently and like I said, it’s up to him.” The doctor didn’t say anything else and once again, Liam was alone in the room with Niall. 

“Well, Nialler.” Liam sat back down in the chair beside Niall’s bed. “I’m going to look on the bright side of all this and assume you’re just sleeping in like you always do.” Liam took Niall’s hand in his again. “I don’t think I’ll be happy again until see those baby blues again. I’m not leaving you, mate.”

Liam thought about going out and calling Zayn again. It was getting late and he still hadn’t heard anything from him, so leaving more messages would be useless if he hadn’t even gotten the first one yet. He would go out and look for him, but Zayn told him to stay with Niall and Liam told Niall he wasn’t going to leave. So, Liam was stuck there waiting for his best friends to comeback.

 

Liam’s head rested against Niall’s bed. His hands still holding onto Niall’s. The sound of the heart monitor was lulling him to sleep, when he felt a slight twitch. Liam dazedly lifted his head and looked at Niall’s hand in his. Maybe it was just his imagination, but then it happened again. Niall’s index finger twitched. Liam stared at Niall’s hand as it slowing clenched itself around Liam’s hand. Liam looked up at Niall’s face just as his eyes started to flutter. It took a while but once his eyes adjusted better, Liam saw Niall’s eyes open weakly. “Niall?” Liam said softly.

Liam saw Niall’s eye shift to try to look at him. “Li?” His voice was hoarse and dry and he had a slightly confused look on his face. “Where’s Z-Zayn?” he choked out. 

Liam could see the slight hint of blue in Niall’s hooded eyes. “He’s fine. He’s okay. He just stepped out for a moment.”

Niall sighed in relief, but still looked worried. 

“I’m going to go find a nurse and tell them you’re awake. You going to be okay?” Liam said getting up from his chair.

Niall nodded faintly.

Liam smiled and left the room in search of a nurse. 

When he came back, there were two nurses with him. Kayla, who was a younger woman with long brown hair and bright eyes and Lisa, who heard the news about Niall and tagged along. 

“How are you feeling, Mr. Horan?” Kayla asked she checked his vitals. 

“Like I got hit by a truck,” Niall said softly.

Kayla laughed slightly. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Niall.”

“And do you know when your birthday is?”

“September 13, 1993.” 

The two nurses exchanged looks. “Ah, just around the corner.” 

“What day is it?” Niall asked groggily. 

“Saturday,” Lisa said then looked at her watch. “Oh, actually it’s Sunday the eighth.”

Liam watched as Kayla tended to Niall, but Lisa stood by him. “Where’s Zayn? I heard he hadn’t left Niall’s side this whole time.”

“I’m not actually sure,” Liam whispered so Niall wouldn’t hear. “He said that he had to take care of something and I haven’t heard from him.”

“It’s a shame he missed Niall waking up. I know how much he cares about him,” Lisa said back quietly.

“He said something earlier about a nurse down in the ER helping him out. I want to thank you for that. He’s not an easy one to talk down.”

“It’s was no big deal. You work in an ER long enough you think you’ve seen it all, but the look on his face. He just needed a bit of guidance.”

“My name’s Liam, by the way. And thanks for the extended family note.”

“Lisa.” They shook hands quickly still standing side by side. “And you’re very welcome.” 

“And that should do it,” Kayla said brightly. “Now, just get some rest and let us know if you need anything.”

“You two stay out of trouble,” Lisa said jokingly before she and Kayla left the room.

Liam sat on the edge of the bed next to Niall and just shook his head. Only a few hours ago, Niall was dying and now he was staring back at Liam with foggy blue eyes. Liam started tearing up just looking at Niall. 

Niall reached out a shaky hand and placed it on Liam’s hands. “I’m sorry, Li.”

Liam glanced down at Niall’s hand then back up to his face. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for, mate. Happens to the best of us. Remember that time we were hunting that banshee in Florida and I got tossed out a window?” Liam laughed.

“Yeah, and we both thought you were dead, but you just happen to land on the roof of the porch.” Niall laughed then held his side as a slight twinge of pain went up his body. “Ah! Don’t make me laugh. It hurts,” he said still trying not to laugh.

“I’m glad you came back to us, Nialler.” Liam slid off the bed and back into his chair.

“Not to sound ungrateful, Li, but shouldn’t I be…you know?” Niall’s eyes shifted over to look at Liam.

“Yeah, I’m not going to lie to you, mate. The doctors weren’t very hopeful, but then things started to turn around and now here you are.”

Niall thought for a moment. “Did I die?” he said hesitantly.

Liam just looked at Niall trying to think of the best way to answer his question. “Zayn said that they lost you a couple times during surgery.”

“Figures,” Niall said looking away from Liam.

“What do you mean?”

Niall didn’t say anything at first, but then he looked back at Liam. “I dunno. I guess I just feel a bit different, that’s all.”

“Well, you went to the edge and back, Ni. I’d be more worried if you didn’t feel different.”

Just then, Liam heard the sound of footsteps come into the room and stop. “Niall?” Liam heard the familiar voice and both his and Niall’s stares shot up to Zayn standing just inside the room.

Zayn stood there unable to move, staring wide-eyed at Niall. A smile cracked across his face as the finally stepped forward and approached the bed slowly. He let go of the breath he was holding and smiled widely as Niall lifted his arms tentatively, inviting Zayn into him. Zayn gently scooped up Niall in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Ni,” he whispered into the cruck of Niall’s neck, the white bandages soaking up the tears now falling from Zayn’s eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

The two boys released each other. Zayn could tell the hug hurt Niall a little bit, but Niall still had a smile on his face. Zayn wiped his eyes and laughed. All three of them, including Liam, were crying. 

“When did you wake up?” Zayn asked looking from Liam to Niall.

“’Bout an hour or so ago,” Liam answered. 

“Where’d you get off to?” Niall asked looking at Zayn curiously.

“Had to take care of a few things at the coroner’s office, went back to the motel and paid for a few more nights, showered…I fell asleep and the next thing I knew it was almost five hours later.” Zayn laughed.

Even with the extra sleep, Zayn still looked like shit. Liam stared at him wondering whether or not to believe him, but decided not to press the issue.

As tired as Niall was, he didn’t want to fall asleep. He saw the looks on Liam and Zayn’s faces every time he winced or coughed and he didn’t want to worry them. Niall felt like he need to prove to them and himself that he was okay or at least that he was going to be okay. It was the look on their faces that told him everything prior to him waking up was hard on them and that his original condition was worse than they were letting on. When the two other boys started to fall asleep, Niall invited Zayn to sleep next to him in the bed. Niall’s head rested on Zayn’s shoulder and Liam held onto Niall’s hand on the other side of him. They wanted to stay as close to each other as possible for as long as they could.

“In a strange way,” Niall began to say quietly. “I’m kinda thankful for this.”

Liam laughed. “Jeez, Nialler. What kind of meds they got you on?”

Niall chuckled slightly. “No, I mean that we’re all together again. I missed this. Just hanging out together.”

“Yeah, me too,” Liam agreed. “Just uh, next time let’s not have to meet up in a hospital.”

Niall laughed, but Zayn just stared at nothing, thinking about the whole situation.

“You alright there, Zaynie?” Liam said breaking Zayn’s concentration. 

Zayn looked at Liam for a moment before he answered. “Yeah, I’m fine…just thinking.”

“I’m glad you boys are here,” Niall said. “I dunno where I’d be without ‘cha.” Niall voice was fading as he fell asleep against Zayn. 

Liam looked at Zayn and smiled. “Night, Nialler,” he said then leaned his head on the side of the bed and fell asleep within a few minutes. 

It took a while, but soon enough Zayn gave in and fell asleep leaning into Niall.

 

Zayn woke up first the in the morning with his cheek pressing against the top of Niall’s flat hair. Liam was still hunched over in the chair, holding onto Niall. His back’s gonna be a bit stiff when he wakes up, Zayn thought. Zayn closed his eyes again and just took in the moment. The steady beat of the heart monitor no longer made him feel sick, because he wasn’t waiting for it flat-line anymore. The beat belonged to Niall’s lively heart and he was thankful for the noise. 

Zayn heard the patter of feet come into the room and he opened his eyes to see one of the nurses come in and give him a caring smile. Zayn sat up slowly, careful not to nudge Niall to much beside him, but Niall stirred at the emptiness beside him as Zayn got out of bed. “Li,” Zayn whispered reaching over Niall’s legs to shake Liam’s arm enough to wake him. “Li, come on. Time to wake up, mate.”

Liam’s head shot up with a dazed look on his face looking around trying to remember where he was. 

“Come on, Li. Gotta give the nurse a minute. We can get something to eat.”

Liam looked around and finally noticing the nurse standing in the room. “Oh. Yeah. Sure.” Liam stood up and wobbled a little bit still groggy from his sleep and his back cracked a few times from the position he was in all night.

Niall stirred and looked over at Zayn. “You boys leaving me already?”

“Just for a bit, Ni. We’re gonna get something to eat, then we’ll be right back. K, babes.” Zayn put his hand gently on Niall’s leg.

Niall nodded.

 

Zayn and Liam went down to the cafeteria in the hospital and sat down to eat. 

“When do you think they’re going to release him,” Liam asked stabbing at the hash brown on his tray.

“Hopefully, soon.”

“I wonder if they’d keep him here longer to try and figure out how he went from dying one minute and talking and laughing the next,” Liam with a slight anger in his tone.  
“Well, Niall’s never been normal. I guess we’ll just have to credit this one to the luck of the Irish,” Zayn said.

“Yeah, well. They better let him out soon. I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna last in this place. I’d break him out if I had too. Bring him home.” Liam gave up on his rubbery hash brown and sipped his tea.

“Yeah, bring him home to a nice cozy hotel room,” Zayn added sarcastically.

Liam stopped eating and looked at Zayn. “On the subject, I’ve been thinking. Do you remember how when we first got here we rented that little apartment? I was thinking about doing something like that. Maybe get a small house or something. I talked to James a few months ago and he said that his father had a few properties that we could rent or buy. I’d keep it all in the hunter’s circle so I’d still be under the government radar.”

Zayn thought for a moment. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Give you a place to in between jobs and it would be better for Niall, for when he finally gets out of this place. He deserves a home.”

“We all do,” Liam added. 

 

When they got back to the room, Niall was sitting up in bed eating some Jell-O. The color in his face came back and he didn’t look as pale anymore. Although, it was the brightness in his blue eyes that told Liam and Zayn that Niall was truly back.

They spent the rest of the morning laughing and telling stories about their many mishaps and past close encounters. 

A nurse came in around noon to check on Niall while Liam and Zayn went to grab some lunch. 

When they walked back into Niall’s room, the blond boy had a huge smile pressed across his face.

“What are you so happy about?” Liam asked.

“Doc came by while you were gone and said I might get discharged late tomorrow morning. Said they’ve never seen anyone recover so fast,” Niall said gleefully. 

“Good for you, mate,” Liam clapped Niall on the shoulder. “I thought we might have to break you out of this place.”

“As hilarious as that would be, I think trying to sneak a gimp on crutches out of this hospital without anyone noticing would be a little tough there, Payno.” Niall laughed.

“I’m up for the challenge,” Liam joked.

 

Three hours later, Liam left to go to the bathroom, leaving Zayn and Niall alone in the room.  
“You okay?” Niall asked quietly as Zayn stared down at his hands.

He looked up to meet Niall’s gaze. “I’m fine. Just can’t wait to get out of here.” Zayn gave a small reassuring smile, but Niall saw right passed it.

“You’ve just seemed a bit off,” Niall started. “It feels like you’re just waiting for something. Like somethings weighing on you mind.”

Zayn shrugged. “These last few days haven’t been all that normal. I mean, I thought we were going to lose you, Ni. Can’t just bounce back from that.”

“I s’pose you’re right.” Niall paused and waited for Zayn to look up at him before he continued. “Things are going to get back to normal, Zayn. Things can’t be bad forever.”

 

The three of them spend the rest of the day just hanging out in Niall’s hospital room. Lisa comes up to visit them even though her shift doesn’t start until later that night. Liam ends up sitting cross-legged at the end of Niall’s bed while Zayn remains somewhat quiet sitting next to Niall at the other end of the bed. They try playing card for a little bit, but Niall keeps trying to cheat so it doesn’t last long. They all end up eating dinner together in Niall’s bed, but by then Liam was sitting in one of the chairs next to the bed to stretch out his legs for a bit.

Around 11pm, their laughter finally died down and the room got quiet. “If you’re being discharged tomorrow you’re going to need some clothes.” Zayn started to scooch off the bed.

“Where are you going?” Liam asked sitting up in the chair and pretended like he wasn’t dozing off.

“Gonna go back to the motel real quick and grab some clothes, maybe a shower, and I’ll be right back.” Seeing the look on Liam and Niall’s faces he added, “I promise.” Zayn put on his jacket and headed for the door.

“Zayn,” Niall called to him and Zayn stopped at the doorway and turned to look at him.

“I love you. You know that, right?” Niall asked.

Zayn nodded. “Yeah, Ni. I love you, too.” Zayn’s voice cracked slightly and he turned to Liam. “You take care of him while I’m gone, yeah?”

Liam nodded. “Yeah, sure thing, mate.”

“I’ll see you boys in a bit.” Zayn looked at Niall one last time before he left down the hallway.

Both Niall and Liam stared at the doorway for a while. 

“He’ll be back soon enough,” Liam said. He looked at Niall, stood up, and crawled onto the bed beside him. Niall leaned into him and rested his head on Liam’s shoulder. That’s how they fell asleep that night.

They woke up the next morning, but there was no sign of Zayn anywhere. A nurse came by with Niall’s discharge papers to fill out and a pair of crutches to take with him.

“Zayn hasn’t come back yet,” Liam said worriedly. 

“Might’ve just fallen asleep again,” Niall said reading through the paper about all the drugs he has to take. 

“Well, you still need clothes. I’m gonna go see if I have some gym shorts and a t-shirt you can borrow.” Liam left and came back a little while later with a pair of navy blue basketball shorts and a plain white t-shirt. “I texted him, but haven’t gotten a response. You get changed and I’m gonna go back out and see if I can reach him either on his cell or maybe call the motel.”

Liam went back out to the parking lot. Niall car was still missing. Liam sat in the front seat of his pickup truck and dialed Zayn’s number and each time there was no answer. He found the number for the motel, but they said that no one was in the room. Liam had a few unchecked alerts on his phone that he hadn’t noticed before. Something about a body being found in the woods just off the main road.

He probably went to go check it out, Liam thought to himself. He figured he just go check it out real quick since it was only a couple minutes away. 

When he got to the location, he saw Niall’s car parked just up ahead. Liam rifled through his glove box to find his FBI badge and got out of the car and started off toward where he could see a few police officers standing in a taped off area.

Liam didn’t see Zayn, but showed the one officer his badge and ducked under the yellow crime scene tape. “So, what do we know so far?” Liam asked the officer. He started walking toward the body, which was covered in a white sheet. 

“Young adult male…looks like another animal attack. Pretty gruesome,” the officer said.

Liam knelt down next to the covered body. “Any ID?” Liam asked. 

“Nothing yet,” the officer replied.

He started to pull back the sheet but stopped. He looked down at the body. The entire chest area was in ribbons and blood splattered up the victim’s pale face. Tattoo lines and shapes were broken by claw marks down the arms. Dark amber eyes stared at the open blue sky.

Liam felt like he was going to be sick. He stood up quickly, went back to his truck, and drove back to the hospital. 

 

Liam walked into Niall’s room and Niall started talking as soon as he saw him enter the room.

“Took you long enough. What did you get lost on your way back?” Niall laughed. He swung his legs carefully over the side of the bed and grabbed for the crutches that rested there. He was dressed in Liam’s shorts and t-shirt, the knee brace sticking out just below the hem of the long shorts. “Doc, says I’m gonna have to get me knee operated on. Definitely not looking forward to that. So, did ya find Zayn? Figured he’d be here by now—” 

“Niall.” Liam’s voice shook.

Niall snapped his head up to look at Liam. “Li, what’s wrong?” His eyebrows knitted together.

Liam looked petrified and tears were filling his eyes. “It’s Z-Zayn. He uh…”

Niall stood up to face Liam properly. “Liam, where’s Zayn?”

Liam swallowed hard; his breathing disjointed. “He…he’s dead, Ni. Zayn’s dead. Found him in the woods just off…off the main road. He’s…he’s gone, Ni.”

Niall stammered back as if he’d been punched. He looked back up. Tears fell from Liam’s red eyes. “No.” Niall shook his head. “No, he promised…he promised he’d come back.” Niall’s breathing hitched and he grabbed onto the bed. “No,” he muttered out again. “He can’t be…” He looked back at Liam. His body felt light and Niall’s eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed onto the hospital room floor.


	3. Where Do Broken Hearts Go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall and Liam deal with the aftermath of what happened to Zayn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I posted this chapter earlier this morning at like 4am and I realized that the point where I left off would flub up the next chapter quite a bit so I deleted the chapter and added the last little bit to it. There's a lot of explanation and angst in this chapter but fear not things will start looking up.

Niall’s eyes fluttered open and he could tell that Liam’s hand was once again on his. He was back in his hospital bed staring up at the ceiling. 

Liam sat forward in the chair and looked at Niall but said nothing.

“Is he really dead?” Niall looked at Liam intently.

Liam’s eyes stared to tear up and he could no longer look at Niall. His grip tightened on Niall’s hand and that was answer enough. “I’m so sorry, Niall,” Liam said through his tears. “I should’ve gone with him. I’m so sorry.” Liam let go of Niall all together and put his head in his hands. He couldn’t even bare to look at the boy in the bed.

Niall had to look away. Seeing Liam was like finding an old shirt that you got your ass beat in, it still had the stain of the memory. Niall prayed it wouldn’t always be like that. They were all each other had but neither could look at the other one without thinking that they had somehow betrayed the other or that the other had betrayed them. 

Niall turned to the side, facing away from Liam and he could taste the salt in the tears that made their way to his lips. When it sounded like Liam’s crying had stopped, Niall finally spoke again. “When can I leave?”

Liam sat up in his chair and wiped his eyes. “Uh…the uh…the doctor said that you didn’t hit anything when you passed out, once they checked you out, you could leave.”  
“Can you please go get the doctor?” Niall’s voice was muffled by the pillow he buried his face into underneath his head. 

“Yeah…Um I can do that. I’ll be right back.” Liam got up and left the room to go find a doctor.

 

Liam stood in the corner of the room and watched as the doctor tested Niall for a concussion and a quick once over. “Well, all seems to be in order. You are free to go, Mr. Horan. I’ll have a nurse come around with a wheelchair and you can be one your way.”

“Wheelchair’s not really necessary,” Niall mumbled. 

“Well, it’s hospital protocol. Once you get outside, you are free to hop on one leg if you really feel like it.” The doctor smiled and left. 

“You alright?” Liam asked hesitantly.

“I just want to go home.” Niall paused realizing what he said wasn’t really possible. “I just want to go.”

A couple minutes later, a nurse came in with the wheelchair for Niall and Liam stepped forward to help Niall get from where he sat at the edge of the bed to the chair. “I’m fine, Liam. I got it.” Niall said as he shakily pushed off the bed and plopped himself down in the chair. 

Liam picked up the bag that had what was left of Niall’s clothes from the night he came into the hospital and another smaller bag that had his wallet and crushed cell phone in it. He grabbed the crutches that were leaning against the bed and followed the nurse to the elevator and rode down in silence to the first floor. 

“I’m gonna pull the truck round,” Liam said quickly when they made it to the front lobby. 

Liam pulled the truck up and the nurse wheeled Niall out. The older boy came around the front of the truck and opened the passenger’s side door.

“Where’s me car?” Niall said as he reluctantly accepted Liam’s help in getting up from the chair and into the truck.

“Still at the police impound lot. I figured I’d get you settled in and see if I could get it.”

Once Liam got Niall situated as best he could in the truck, he went around and got back in the driver’s seat.

Niall stared out the window as they made their way back to the motel. “I wanna see him,” Niall said without looking at Liam.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Niall.” Liam glanced over at Niall but then put his eyes back on the road.

“I want to see him,” Niall said again.

“We’ll talk about it later,” was all Liam said.

Niall was too tired to argue.

 

They got to the hotel and Liam parked the truck. Neither of them moved at first. The rift between them was already growing even though they knew that the other wasn’t to blame for anything that happened.

Niall could tell Liam was about to say something, but he wanted to say something first. “I can’t do this, Li. I can’t do this thing where we skirt around each other for the next couple weeks. I just can’t. I know things are weird right now, but I promise you that it won’t be forever. I know none of this was your fault, and you should know that too, but the things I know and what my head is thinking aren’t running on the same wavelength. And the way I feel right now isn’t okay…I know this is gonna take some time. We’re gonna need some time. I’m gonna say some things I don’t mean and all I ask you between now and then is that you don’t leave me. I can’t lose you.” Niall looked at Liam, who stared back at Niall with tears stinging the back of his eyes.

“I promise I’ll never leave you, Nialler. And same goes for you.” Liam smiled. “Don’t you go hoping off on me.” They both let out a small laugh. “And at least let me help you out of the truck.”

“Deal.” Niall said. 

Liam came around to Niall’s side and put his hands on Niall’s waist and Niall steadied himself on Liam’s shoulders as he slid out of the seat. Liam grabbed the crutches from the bed of the truck and handed them to Niall. “You good?” 

Niall slid the crutches under his arms making sure he was steady. “I’m good. Need any help with the bags?”

“No, I got ‘em,” Liam said as he pushed the passenger’s side seat forward and grabbed his duffle bag and Niall’s bags from the hospital. “Come on.” Liam smiled and walked toward the motel room door and pulled the key out of Niall’s bag.

Niall hesitated to go in at first. The last time he was in there was when they were planning how to trap the demon. He scooted in and looked around as Liam closed the door behind them. The strange thing was that all of Zayn’s stuff aside from a few odds and ends were gone. Neither of them said anything about this.

“You should probably get some rest. I’m gonna go fill your prescription and see what has to be done about getting your car back.” Liam set down the bags and put Niall’s wallet and cracked phone on the nightstand next to Niall’s bed, and went back over to his own bag.

“Liam, when can I see him?” Niall said quietly.

Liam stopped what he was doing. “Niall…” he began.

“No, Liam. I get it, but I don’t care what he looks like or how bad it is…I need to see him.” Niall paused. “I need to see him, because I don’t get it. I don’t understand what happened and I…I guess I just need to see it for me self.” Niall stared back at Liam with pleading eyes.

Liam nodded his head. “Alright. If it’s what you really want, I won’t stop you, but Niall…I really wish you wouldn’t.” Liam paused long enough to see if Niall would rethink it at all, but that didn’t happen. “I’ll uh… I’ll make a call to the coroner’s office and say we need to positively ID the body. As far as they and the police are concerned, I work for the FBI, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Do they know who he is?” Niall asked hesitantly. 

“I’m not sure, but I can find out when I call.” 

Niall eased himself down onto the bed.

“You get some sleep. I’m gonna get your medication and see about your car.” Liam put on a clean shirt and grabbed his keys from where he had set them down. “Alright, I’ll be back in a bit. Call if you need anything.” Liam started for the door.

“Hey. Li?”

Liam stopped and turned to face Niall. “What?”

Niall picked up his phone from the nightstand and held it up. The front screen was completely smashed. “Can you pick me up a new phone while you’re out?”

Liam chuckled. “Sure thing,” he said and left the motel room.

Niall sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, not sure what to do. He opened the drawer of the nightstand and the gun that he had left in there a few days prior was still there. He picked it up and the black metal felt heavy in his hand. He checked the chamber and made sure the clip was full. He knew it would be, but did the movement almost to tell himself that was the purpose for him holding it in his hands.  
He stared at the gun for a long time. He thought about Zayn, the woods, and the hellhound coming for him. The worst part was that he knew what Zayn felt right before he died. Only there wasn’t anyone there to tell him it was going to be okay. There wasn’t somebody there to help him. 

Niall put the gun back in the nightstand and laid back on the bed. He closed his eyes and could feel all the pain in his body creep up on him. He’d been so focused on other things that he forgot he was supposed to be in pain in the first place. He felt it roll up his sides all the way to his neck. He hoped that Liam would get back soon. 

He sat up slowly, with his legs still dangling over the side of the bed. He bent over as best he could and tried to get his shoes off. He hadn’t noticed it before, but they were his shoes from when he came into the hospital and they had his blood splattered over them. 

The blood covered most of the surface of both white shoes. Niall stared at the sneakers and suddenly didn’t feel so well. He grabbed his crutches and quickly made his way to the bathroom. 

Niall threw the crutches down on the floor and fell to his knees in front of the toilet just as the vomit hit the back of his throat and poured into the toilet water. When the last of it came out, Niall shifted himself so he was sitting against the wall next to the sink. He felt dizzy, gross, and despite the pain, he managed to float into sleep; and that’s where he stayed. 

In his light sleep, he heard a door close and someone setting keys down on a hard surface. “Niall?” he heard Liam’s voice. When he heard his name a second time, it sounded more panicked. “Niall?”

Niall’s eyes fluttered open just as Liam came around the corner into the bathroom and stopped with panic in his face at the sight of Niall on the floor. Suddenly, Liam was kneeling next him. “Niall? You okay? What happened?” Liam cupped Niall’s cheek in his hand. “Niall?”

“Liam?” Niall said faintly.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Liam stared at Niall worriedly.

“I ruined my shoes, Liam,” Niall said half-consciously. 

“What?”

“I bled on my shoes, Li. I liked those shoes. I don’t want to get new ones.” Niall finally opened his eyes all the way and looked at Liam.

“Well, you could still wear them, Nialler…start a new fashion trend.” Liam gave a small smile and Niall let out a pained laugh. Liam stood and filled one of the paper cups sitting on the sink with some water and handed it to Niall. “Here swish and spit, mate.” 

Niall took a sip of the water and moved it around in his mouth then spit it into the toilet. He handed the cup back to Liam who set it back down on the counter and then flushed the toilet to get rid of Niall’s vomit. “You ready to get into bed? Take some painkillers? I read the labels sound like some fun stuff they got you on.”

Niall let out a mild groan as Liam slipped his arm under Niall’s shoulder and helped him off the floor and back to his bed. 

Liam set Niall down gently on the bed and handed him some water alone with whatever pills he needed to take. “Get some sleep.”

“What about me car?” Niall said as his head hit the pillow.

“We’ll go down there later when you’re feeling better and sort it out. They asked about you while I was there. They wanted to know if I talked to you, but I said you weren’t feeling up to it just yet.” Liam pulled the covers up over Niall.

“Understatement,” Niall said groggily with his eyes closed.

“Just get some sleep, Nialler.” 

 

Niall woke up early in the morning to Liam talking on the phone. 

“I think given all that’s happened, that’s not really the priority here, Sheriff.” What threw Niall off the most was Liam’s American accent. “I mean, I understand bringing him in for questioning, but he’s just lost his best friend, fake IDs are another problem for another day.” Liam listened and then started talking again. “I called the coroner’s office this morning, I’m taking him in to make a positive ID on the body, then I’ll bring him over to answer whatever questions you have and he would also like to get his car back.” Liam paused again. “Yeah, yeah alright. I’ll be by later with him.” 

Niall could hear the sigh come out of Liam when the call was finally over. Niall peered over at Liam, who then looked up and met Niall’s gaze. “I guess I’m going to the Sheriff’s station,” he mumbled out.

Liam came over and sat on the other bed across from Niall’s. “Yeah, and we got to come up with a story on why you guys used fake student IDs to see that body at the coroner’s office. The coroner’s office had some sort of computer problem the other night, so all the hard evidence is wiped, but the receptionist and the coroner remember you two and were a little confused when Zayn’s driver’s license didn’t say his name was Wayne and they checked with the hospital, so your cover’s blow to pieces there, Kyle.” Liam chuckled and shook his head.

“They talked to the hospital? What does that mean for you?” Niall tried to sit up a little.

“Nothing really. My name wasn’t on any of the paperwork at the hospital and as far as the Sheriff’s station is concerned, my name isn’t Liam Payne. I’m Agent Ronald Grant with the FBI.” Liam smiled. “How are you feeling?”

Niall sat up. “I’m managing.”

“You should probably eat something. I picked up some cereal for you. Figured after yesterday you wouldn’t want anything too heavy. Plus, I think you’re supposed to eat something with your medication.” Liam got up and went over to the table where he’d set everything down and fixed Niall a bowl of cereal and some water and came back over with his medication. “Bottoms up,” Liam said handing Niall the glass of water and pills.

Niall swallowed the pills and set the water down on the nightstand. “So, we’re going to the coroner’s today?”

“Yeah, and then they want me to bring you into the station for questioning.”

“But I don’t know anything,” Niall said taking a small bite of his cereal. 

“They don’t seem convinced. Once you’re done eating, we’ll get you hosed off in the shower and I gotta put on a monkey suit. So, that should be fun. Oh, and I remembered to pick up a new phone for you as well. Set it up while you were sleeping.” Liam got up and went to his suitcase.

“Li?”

Liam turned around.

“How am I supposed to take a shower?” Niall had a worried look on his face.

Liam cringed slightly. “We’ll as much as I want to make a joke about a sexy sponge bath; the doctors said you couldn’t take showers for a few days.” Liam paused. “We’ll figure something out.”

Niall finished eating and Liam helped him get into the bathroom. Niall sat on the side of the bathtub and tried pulling his shirt over his head, but after he almost fell backwards into the tub. Liam pushed his hands away and lifted Niall’s shirt up and over his head, tossing it on the floor behind him. 

Claw marks ran their way up Niall’s torso, some still covered in white bandages. Liam didn’t want to stare at the marks and make Niall uncomfortable, but he noticed Niall’s gaze was on his own body. Niall lifted a hand and ran his fingers over the red raised lines on his body. He traced one from the center of his stomach to the right side of his neck. 

Liam could see Niall diminish before him and sink into himself.

“Hey?” Liam said kneeling in front of Niall. “Niall, look at me.” 

Niall’s blue eyes met Liam’s soft stare.

“It’s alright. It’s not that bad,” Liam said trying to convince Niall that he wasn’t broken. “Let’s get you cleaned up, yeah?”

Liam ran the water and ran a washcloth gently over Niall’s body. Neither of them said anything the entire time aside from Liam occasionally asking Niall if he was all right.

With his knee brace off, Niall could at least put on a pair of skinny jeans then put the brace back on over top. Niall put on a loose fitting t-shirt from his bag and a black hoodie that he zipped up partially. 

Liam wore a loose fitting grey trousers and a light blue button up rolled up at the sleeves.

“I thought you said you had to wear the monkey suit.” Niall noted sitting on his bed. “That’s only half a monkey suit.”

“I look like fourteen year old in a full suit. This makes it more believable.” Liam smirked. He looked over at Niall who was staring at the marks on his arm. “You sure you want to do this?”

Niall nodded and peered up at Liam. “Yeah.”

“Alright, then. Let’s get this over with.”

 

Liam held the door open for Niall when they got to the coroner’s office. He pulled the fake badge from his pocket and showed it to the receptionist. “Agent Grant. We’re here give a positive ID a body that came in about a day ago, um...” Liam paused. “M-Malik, Zayn Malik.”

“Dr. Jacey requires that I get identification from everyone entering the facilities.” The receptionist looked at the two of them, giving Niall a slightly dirty look at first then looked back at Liam. 

“Of course.” Liam turned to Niall who handed over his real driver’s license. Liam gave it to the receptionist and smiled. “As for that matter we are looking into it.”

She handed back the license. “Yeah, I’m sure you are,” she said smugly. “First door on the left. Dr. Jacey is waiting for you.”

“Thank you very much.” Liam said as he led the way down the hallway, pausing outside the autopsy room. He turned and his calm exterior had all but vanished. 

Niall could tell that Liam didn’t want to be there and that he was hoping that Niall would change his mind.

Liam’s hands were shaking slightly. “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? Can’t you just believe me that you don’t want to see him?”

Niall’s eyes were soft. He felt so awful for putting Liam through this, but Niall had to see him. He had to know for sure that this was real. He’d been caught in this limbo between disbelief and emptiness. “I have to do this, Li.”

Liam said nothing else and opened the door. The familiar clean smell hit Niall and he felt like he was going to be sick. 

Dr. Jacey came up to Liam. “Agent Grant, I presume?” he said offering Liam his hand.

“Yes sir. And you must be Dr. Jacey.”

“I see you’ve brought the other one back,” the doctor said look at Niall who was still standing in the hallway. Dr. Jacey leaned in. “I’d keep an eye on that one, if I were you,” he whispered to Liam.

“Will do. But for the time being, I was wondering if you could give us the room. We’re looking into the incident that happened here, but for now, he’s just here to give a positive ID.”

“Of course. Just let me know if you need anything. The body is already laid out for you.” Dr. Jacey walked around Liam and completely ignored Niall as he left the room.

Liam looked back at Niall. “Come on, mate,” Liam said in his normal accent, which was slightly comforting to Niall.

The sound of the crutches hitting the tile seemed to echo in the cold room. Niall’s eyes were peeled on the sheet-covered figure laying in the table in the middle of the room. 

The two boys stood side by side next to the covered body. “Alright. Let’s do this.” Liam whispered more to himself than to anyone in particular. He reached a shaking hand out, grabbed the material, and started pulling it back slowly. 

Short dark hair, long eyelashes, high cheekbones, pale lips, thin shoulders, familiar tattoos. 

The air shook in and out of Niall. He reached his hand out. It shook almost violently as his fingertips grazed Zayn’s shoulder. Niall could feel how cold Zayn was and he could see the Y-shaped incision that cut through the tattoos on Zayn’s chest. Deep, hateful claw marks sewn shut covered Zayn’s entire body. He didn’t look like Zayn anymore. He was pale, lifeless, and suddenly Niall couldn’t breathe. His body went limp and Liam threw his arms around Niall to steady him as his crutches fell to the floor.

Liam held Niall as close to him and as tight as possible. Niall cried into Liam’s chest almost angrily and Liam could feel the tears falling from his own eyes.

“This isn’t real. This isn’t real,” Niall said over and over into Liam’s chest.

Liam’s hands rubbed gentle circles on Niall’s back. He could feel his own breath stammer as he held onto Niall. “It’s gonna be alright, Niall. Everything’s gonna be alright,” Liam whispered.

Niall pulled himself away from Liam staring straight into Liam’s soft brown eyes, as if to keep from looking at Zayn. Niall was still shaking and tears were streaming down both their faces.

Liam grabbed Niall’s left arm tightly to steady him with his right hand. Niall stared straight forward at Liam as Liam reached his other hand out and carefully pulled the sheet back over Zayn. 

Liam looked back at Niall. “We’re gonna be okay.” Liam bent down, picked up Niall’s crutches, and handed them back to him. “We’re gonna be okay,” he said again.

Liam wiped his eyes and led Niall back out to the reception area. Niall sat down in one of the chairs as Liam filled out some paperwork and talked to the receptionist about the computer issue and the false identities, once again reassuring her that they would look into it.

 

“We still have to stop by the sheriff’s station. You still up for that?” Liam asked when they got back into the truck.

“Yeah,” Niall quietly replied staring out the window. “Don’t have much of a choice.”

 

Niall trailed Liam into the sheriff’s station.

“Agent Grant?” A slender, dark haired officer came up to them. Liam recognized him from the crime scene. The officer then noticed Niall behind Liam. “Oh, I’ll get the sheriff. You can just wait here a moment.” The officer wandered off.

Niall looked around the station, but stopped when he saw what was laid out on one of the desks. There were pictures from some of the earlier attacks, but then what were more disturbing was the pictures of Niall unconscious in the hospital. The pictures were taken after surgery, before they put the bandages on him. The cuts looked so much deeper and if Niall hadn’t of known better, he would have said that he looked dead. He looked like the creature from Frankenstein, sticks covering his body.

Niall was pulled out of his mind when an officer slammed more photos on the desk and walked away. These were less familiar to Niall, but then he noticed who was in the pictures among the leaves in the middle of the woods. The leaves all around the body were blood soaked and the familiar amber eyes stared blankly up at the sky. 

Niall felt his body start to shake again. 

Liam turned to look at him and noticed he was pale white. “Niall? What’s wrong?” Liam followed Niall’s gaze and saw the pictures. “Jesus Christ.” Liam frantically started gathering up the photos.

“What the hell are you doing?” the officer who set down the photos came back and yelled at Liam. 

“Have some respect,” Liam said shoving the photos at the officer.

The officer looked at Niall then back at Liam. “What? You getting all pissy over him?” he said gesturing toward Niall.

“Officer Daniels!” the sheriff yelled. “Agent Grant is right. Have some respect. I told you to put those away over an hour ago.”

Officer Daniels scurried off with the photos.

“Sorry about that, gentlemen. But if you’ll follow me, I’ll introduce you to Detective Morrison who will be conducting the interview.”

Niall and Liam followed the Sheriff to the small conference room at the back of the station, where a muscular, brown haired man in a black suit was waiting. 

“Ah, gentlemen. I’m Detective Morrison. I’m head of this investigation and we’re working with the people from fish and wildlife to figure out what’s going on in this little town of yours. So, if you will excuse me, I’d like to talk to Mr. Horan alone.” 

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Liam said.

“Well, Mr. Horan is over the age of 18, you’re not his legal counsel, and he’s not being charged with anything at the moment, so you can wait outside, Agent Grant.”

Liam looked at Niall whose eyes pleaded with him to stay. Liam reluctantly left the room with the sheriff giving one last look at Niall before the door closed.

“I think he’s gotten a bit attached,” Detective Morrison joked. “Have a seat.” He gestured toward the chair just off the corner. Morrison sat next to Niall at the head of the conference table.

“Now then, your full name please.”

Niall didn’t reply. The pictures of Zayn kept rolling through his mind. The coldness of Zayn’s skin. His flesh ripped to shreds. 

“Look kid, it’s going to make your life a lot easier if you just answer my questions.” Morrison stared at Niall waiting for some sort of response, but got none. “Your name please.”

Niall swallowed hard and instead focused on his hands, which were resting on the table in front of him. “Niall James Horan,” Niall said quietly.

“And the deceased’s name?”

Niall struggle to even open his mouth. “Z-Zayn Malik.”

“Alright, I’m going to jump right to it. The receptionist and the coroner remember both you and Mr. Malik coming into their office as college students under the names Wayne and Kyle, and you said that you were working on a paper for school, which we know is also a lie because the school has no record of either of you. So, what were you doing at the coroner’s office and why did you want to see that body?”

“We thought we could help,” Niall said shakily.

“Help with what? The animal attacks? Because based on what Dr. Jacey says you two asked some weird questions then left and the next thing he knew one of you was being brought in in a body bag.”

“Something similar happened in another town and we wanted to see if it was connected at all.”

“So, to do that you made fake IDs and put on a show with some American accents. Yeah don’t think I didn’t notice the British accent there kid. ‘Cause I’m pretty sure the good doctor would have mentioned an outstanding detail like that—”

“I’m Irish,” Niall cut him off. There was a serious tone to his voice.

“Yeah, it doesn’t make much difference to me where the hell you’re from, kid. We have the statement that Mr. Malik gave the police about what happened, but I what I want to know is why he left the hospital that day? I mean, I’ve seen the photos, you were not in the best shape and according to your doctors you didn’t have much time left and I honestly can’t figure out how you’re even sitting here right now, let alone why your best friend is in the refrigerator at the coroner’s office.”

Niall’s jaw tightened. His thumb rubbed harshly at his skin of his shaking hands. He stared down at his hands watching the skin turn red.

“Do you really think you deserve special treatment?” Morrison said leaning toward Niall. “You broke the law, almost got yourself killed, then subsequently got your best friend killed, because you both got in over your heads and panicked. Why was Zayn Malik out in the woods that day?”

“I don’t know,” Niall said through clenched teeth.

“You were awake by then, he much have said something to you before he left the hospital that day. Why was he in the woods?”

Niall slammed his fists against the table making Morrison jump. “I don’t know alright!” he yelled. “He promised he would come back and he never did! Is that what you want to hear? I don’t know why he was there because he wasn’t supposed to die, I was!” Niall stared down Morrison and saw a glint of fear in his eyes.

Just then, the door burst open and the Liam and the sheriff came into the conference room. 

“This interview’s over,” Liam said sternly. 

Morrison broke eye contact with Niall and looked at Liam. “I got all I needed anyway.” Morrison collected his things and left the room.

Niall sat back in his chair burying his head in his hands. 

“I’m sorry about all this,” the sheriff said. “I know we talked about releasing Mr. Horan’s car from the impound lot on the phone earlier, and as an apology, I can have one of our guys tow it to wherever Mr. Horan is staying, since he can’t drive at the moment.”

Liam knelt down beside Niall and put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s very kind of you Sheriff. And at the moment we are both staying at Jammer’s Motel at the edge of town until we get this all sorted out.”

“I’ll have someone drop it off later today. I can give you a call when that happens so you can get the keys.” 

“Thank you, Sheriff,” Liam said. 

The sheriff gave them the room for a minute until Niall calmed down.

“Niall, look at me. What happened?” Liam was still kneeling next him, but Niall wouldn’t look at him.

“I don’t want to be here anymore, Liam,” Niall replied quietly.

“Alright. Let’s get out of here then.”

 

They got back to the motel and Niall still hadn’t said a word to Liam and Liam didn’t want to press the issue.

Niall took off his shoes and climbed into bed. His head was pounding in his skull, his knee was throbbing, and there was a pulsating ache running through most of his body. 

Wordlessly, Liam came over and gave Niall a couple pills and some water, then left him alone for the rest of the day. 

Someone came by a couple hours later with Niall’s car and Liam went out to meet them to get the keys, but other than that, Liam stayed in the room with Niall.

Zayn always had ways of getting Niall to open up to him, but Liam had always been the one that waited until Niall was ready. He didn’t want to push Niall away more than Niall was already pulling away. 

Liam knew something happened during that interview with Morrison that Niall didn’t want to talk about. It was something that knocked Niall back down again. It was seeing Zayn in the morgue, the photos of both himself and Zayn on the desk, the interview with Morrison. It was too much and Liam couldn’t even figure out where to start in trying to unpack that all from Niall’s mind. He couldn’t wrap his head around what he thought he heard Niall say before he and the sheriff interrupted the interview, but Liam couldn’t just ask Niall about it. Liam couldn’t do what Zayn could. He couldn’t be Zayn for Niall and he felt utterly useless.

Liam couldn’t get Niall to eat and no matter how many times he told Niall he would feel better if he ate something, Niall wouldn’t even acknowledge him.

Liam climbed onto the bed that used to be Zayn’s and fell asleep fully clothed on top of the sheets. 

He woke up and the bed beside him was empty, but the bathroom door was closed. Liam inched his way off the bed, went towards the bathroom, and knocked on the door. “Niall? You alright, mate?”

“I’m fine, Liam.”

Liam sighed and knowing that was all he was going to get in the way of a response, he went to check his phone, which was charging on the nightstand. He had six missed calls from the sheriff’s station and Detective Morrison. 

Liam dialed the number for the sheriff’s station as Niall came out of the bathroom and hobbled over to the desk in the corner and sat down. 

The phone rang a twice before someone answered. “Sheriff’s station, how may I help you?”

“This is Agent Grant, the sheriff as well as Detective Morrison called me and I was wondering if either of them were there?” Liam said hiding his accent.  
“The sheriff is in the field at the moment, but Detective Morrison is here, I’ll transfer you to him.”

The next thing Liam knew, Morrison’s irate voice was on the other end of the phone.

“Where the hell have you been? The feds might have the luxury of sleeping in, but I don’t and I swear to god if you had anything to do with this, I will have no problem throwing your fed ass in jail.”

“Morrison, what are you even talking about?” Liam finally got a word in.

“The body, Agent Grant. I’m talking about the Malik kid’s body being in the morgue yesterday, the coroner comes in this morning, and it’s missing. That’s what I’m talking about.”

“What do you mean his body’s missing?”

Niall’s head snapped up and he stared at Liam.

“I mean Zayn Malik’s body is gone. There were no signs of a break in and the techs said that there was something wrong with the video feed, which means that we are dealing with professionals here. Probably, some crazed devil worshippers doing god only knows what with it.” 

“How can a body just go missing from the coroner’s office? That doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Well start making sense of it, because we now not only have to find the animal doing the killing, but now we have to find out who the hell stole a body from a morgue! I mean, I assume you’ll tell the Horan kid, since you two seem so close. I’d peg him as a suspect, god knows that kid’s got some issues, but his gimp ass can barely hold himself up, let alone steal a body. Now, if you don’t mind I’ve got some work to do.” He hung up the phone.

Niall was still staring at Liam. “What’s going on?” Niall asked eyeing Liam down.

“That was Detective Morrison.” Liam paused. “Zayn’s body is missing from the morgue. No signs of a break in and the cameras were useless.” 

Niall didn’t say anything, but he quickly looked away from Liam and down at his hands.

“We’re gonna figure this out, Niall. I—“

“It could be demons,” Niall said cutting Liam off. Niall pulled a couple of old lore books from a bag next to the desk. 

 

Niall spent the next two days in a silent search. The motel room was a mess. Papers, photos, and lore books were scattered all around in the corner of the room on the floor and the desk. Niall sat on the ground with his leg stretched out in the brace and he made note after note. He watched the tape from the coroner’s office over and over looking for anything useful. 

What if a demon possessed Zayn’s body and just disappeared? What if they needed something from Zayn? What if they took something else that the police or the coroner hadn’t noticed was missing? But then there was Zayn’s anti-possession tattoo, but Niall didn’t know if it still worked if Zayn was dead.

Liam watched Niall and grew increasingly worried. Niall hadn’t eaten much and he hardly said a word, but Niall had warned Liam, hadn’t he? When they were sitting in truck, Niall said that this might happen and Liam had promised not to leave him and Niall promised Liam the same. 

Niall fell asleep on the floor that night. He’d taken his medication and promptly fell asleep soon after. 

Liam moved some of the papers out of the way and bent down next to Niall and scooped him up in his arms, stood shaking slightly under Niall’s weight and placed him in the bed. In Niall’s condition, he’d regret sleeping on the floor.

 

Liam was already awake when Niall woke up Friday morning. Niall sat up weakly. 

“I’ve got to go to the front desk and pay for a few more days. You gonna be alright?” Liam said grabbing his wallet and phone from the nightstand. 

“Yeah,” Niall replied, getting out of bed, limping into the bathroom. 

Liam pulled a tiny package from his suitcase and placed it on the nightstand. “Happy Birthday, Nialler,” Liam said softly. He left the room and headed toward the front desk.

Niall came out of the bathroom and sat down on his bed. His back was stiff and his legs were restless from sitting on the floor all day the day before. He blindly grabbed his medication from the nightstand and swallowed two of the little round pills. That was when he noticed the small package. Happy Birthday, Niall!! was written in Liam’s handwriting on the top. Niall picked it up and began pulling at the shoddy newspaper wrapping. There was another note inside.

Nialler,

A few months ago, before we split up, both Zayn and I got anti-possession tattoos, which you said you weren’t quite ready for and I said that I’d look into an alternative for you. Well, Zayn was actually the one that figured it out and it took some time but we finally tracked something down for you to wear which will keep the demons out. Things are going to get better, mate.

Happy 20th Birthday, Niall!

Love,  
Liam

Behind the note was a chain necklace with a silver pentagram pendent with symbols etched softly into the metal. Niall held it in his hand like it might break. He ran his thumb over the etching feeling the individual grooves. 

Niall heard the door open and close as Liam came back in from the front desk. 

Liam stopped and noticed that Niall was holding the necklace. “If we really are dealing with demons, it’s best to be prepared.” Liam looked at Niall. “Zayn really wanted you to have that. Said that he didn’t want to let any demons up inside you.”

Niall chuckled.

“He was an idiot,” Niall said playfully, looking up at Liam.

“Yeah, he was.”

Niall slipped the necklace over his head.

“Now,” Liam said walking over to crouch in front of Niall. “How about I help you sift through all this garbage and see if we can make some sense of all this? We don’t even have to talk. We can just work.”

Niall gave Liam a small smile and nodded his head. “Let’s find him.” 

 

Two weeks later, Niall and Liam had been in that motel room almost the entire time. They both looked terrible. Niall had dark circles under his eyes that made his pale skin look even paler. Liam had his perpetual headache from having to deal with Detective Morrison on the phone every time something went sideways in the case, which was anytime something supernatural was involved and he couldn’t explain it.

Both boys were unshaven and despite Niall having issues in the past with growing facial hair, the dark stubble was noticeable on his chin. 

Liam was happy he when he didn’t need to help Niall shower anymore, because after only a couple days of them working together, tensions were getting high again and the two boys spent more time arguing with each other than working to find out what happened to Zayn.

Liam finally gave in two days after Niall’s birthday and called Zayn’s mom. All he wanted to do was cry, but nothing came out. Liam started to feel numb to the whole thing and he couldn’t help but just apologize over the phone. He couldn’t even give her the comfort of a funeral for her son, because there was no body to bury. 

Niall had gotten upset at Liam after an hour of silence when Liam told him that he called Zayn’s mom to tell her what happened. Niall was tired of Liam walking on eggshells around him and worrying more about how other people were dealing with it and how Liam wasn’t dealing with it at all. This then prompted Liam to yell at Niall for closing himself off and that if Niall would just talk to him, he wouldn’t have to be so careful around him.

“Fuck it,” Niall finally said using the bed to stand up. “We’ve been at this for two fucking weeks and we’re getting nowhere, Liam. I think we need to just look at this for what it is…for what we both know what it is.”

“Niall…” Liam said getting to his feet.

“No, Liam. We’ve been looking into this trying to figure out where his body went and what we really should be doing is looking at why Zayn is dead in the first place. Why I’m alive and he’s not. The computer issue at the coroner’s office, Zayn’s weird behavior, Zayn going missing while I was dying in the hospital. He knew he was going to die, Liam. He knew this was going to happen and he spent that time preparing for when it did happen. For the longest time, I sat here thinking that he might have screwed around with the computers at the coroner’s office for when I died and they shipped me over there to get cut open again, but I think we need to face the fact that he did it so when his body ended up there, there wouldn’t be any hard evidence on either of us.”

“No, Niall. He wouldn’t. There’s got to be something we missed,” Liam said sternly.

“Liam.” Niall paused. “Zayn made a deal with the crossroad’s demon and sold his soul to save me. I’m not dead because he is…”

Liam just stared at Niall. The thought had gone through both of their minds multiple times but neither of them wanted to entertain the possibility that Zayn had essentially killed himself by making a crossroad’s deal. That’s why there hadn’t been any more attacks, since Zayn. He probably made a deal with the demon to stop taking people before their time was up if she saved Niall and took Zayn instead. Those pieces fit so perfectly into the reasoning behind everything that happened but neither boy wanted to admit that that’s what happened to Zayn. There couldn’t be justice or revenge for something he did to himself.

Niall sat down on the bed and Liam just continued to stare at him. 

“I gotta make a call,” Liam said quickly before he rushed out of the motel room.

Niall laid back on the bed and let out a long breath. It felt like the contents of his stomach had curdled and like a hand was clenched around his heart. There was no more to look for and any sign of what happened to Zayn’s body was long gone. Niall let the idea of Zayn selling his soul to save him cement itself inside of him and make him feel empty. It was his fault that Zayn was dead.

Liam came back in a half hour later. “We’re leaving tomorrow,” he said firmly.

“What?” Niall said trying to sit up without vomiting. 

“I talked to James, and he’s letting us have one of his father’s old properties. It’s out in the middle of the woods in New Jersey so we don’t have to deal with anyone snooping about. He said he wanted to rent them out to hunters so it’s a bit easier to stay off the radar and that’s where we are going.”

“Where the hell did that come from?” Niall questioned.

“I spoke with James a few months ago about it and…and I mentioned it to Zayn before he…” Liam paused. “He thought it was a good idea. It would give you somewhere to recuperate after everything that’s happened and you still have to get the surgery on your knee. And honestly Niall, I can’t stay here. You can’t stay here. It’s no good for either of us. So, we’re leaving.”

Liam left and came back two hours later. 

“Where’d you go?” Niall asked. 

Liam hadn’t realized it earlier, but Niall looked sick. His skin was paler than usual and he seemed more tired and weak than he should after two weeks. 

“I had to drop me truck off.”

“What?”

“I put me truck into a storage place a few miles down the road that I noticed about a week ago. You can’t drive yet and so we only need one vehicle, and yours is easier to drive and it’s more comfortable. I’ll get me truck back at some point, but for now it just makes sense to do it this way. But if I’m being bloody honest, I wouldn’t mind if I never came back to northern North Dakota ever again.”

“So, where are we going?” Niall rubbed the back of his neck.

“Johnsonburg, New Jersey,” Liam said typing something into his phone. “Google Maps says it’s about a day’s drive. It looks to be in the middle of nowhere…”

“Awesome,” Niall said flatly.

The early the next morning, Niall stayed in the room packing while Liam brought everything outside and packed up the car.

When everything was in the car, Niall still hadn’t come out of the room. 

“Niall? You ready to go, mate?” Liam entered the room and saw Niall standing in the middle of the room leaning on his crutches, just staring at the empty bed next to his. “Niall?” Liam said again. 

Niall’s head snapped up and he stared at Liam.

“Car’s all packed and I’ve checked us out. You ready to go?” 

Niall nodded wearily and brought himself over to the nightstand. He opened the drawer and pulled out the gun, which had been left in there. He tucked the gun into the back of his waistband and pulled his shirt over top of it. He didn’t say a word as he came toward Liam and went out to the car leaving Liam to close the door behind him.

 

They stopped a few times along the way for bathroom breaks and food, even though Niall hardly ate anything. The only sound around them came from the hum of the car. They stopped at a motel at a little over the midway point in Indiana, and then got back on the road the next morning. 

Liam was grateful when they finally turned onto the road that the house was on. House number 104 finally showed up and Liam breathed a sigh of relief. They were, as far as he could tell, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and more trees with hardly any other houses nearby. 

It was a long dirt driveway and Liam couldn’t help but wonder what kind of creepy ass house must be at the end of it.

They pulled up to a rather large, two story, log cabin style house, with a big picture window.

“Holy fuck,” Liam breathed out.

“You sure we’re in the right place?” Niall said gazing up at the house.

“It says 104 and James mentioned something about it being a log cabin… He must have missed the part where the house was big enough for a family of five or maybe even seven.”

Liam grabbed a couple bags from the trunk, met Niall at the front door, and found the keys where James said they’d be under the blue-potted plant on the front porch.

The door opened easily and Liam tried to find a light switch. The lights came on and suddenly the two boys could see that the place was already furnished and seemingly well stocked.

“I’m gonna go find a room upstairs,” Niall said taking his bag from Liam and putting the strap over his shoulder. 

“You want some help?” 

“I’m tired, Liam. I just want to get some sleep. We can get the rest of the crap in the morning.” 

Before Liam could say anything else, Niall was already making his way up the stairs and from the sound of a door slamming shut, Liam knew that Niall took a room to the left of the stairs so he’d be sure to get one on the other side so that he could give Niall some space.

As happy as Liam was to have a place to call home again, he knew it would solve everything. Niall was still spiraling and the only thing Liam was holding onto was the little piece of Niall that showed itself in a quick smile or a small joke.

Liam knew Niall wouldn’t be able to just let everything go even if they left that town and that motel room back in North Dakota. He’d have to keep an eye on Niall and maybe even one on himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said this chapter's a little rough on the boys, but Chapter 4 will introduce one of the other 1d boys and he will bring a much needed light to this darkness.  
> Let me know what you think and sorry about the wait!


	4. Hey Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall and Liam have an unexpected visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!!!!!!! This chapter deals with depression and mentions suicide many times. TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!!!!!
> 
> This chapter introduces a new character (it's one of the boys)!!!  
> Also, sorry about how long this took to write. This is one of the longest chapters and I have midterms coming up.

They’d been living at the house for almost a month. The two boys kept mostly to themselves and the house was big enough that they hardly even saw each other.

Niall stayed in his room most of the day and Liam was pretty sure that Niall had read every book on demons and crossroad deals that were in the small library in the office downstairs. Liam would occasionally hear Niall make his way down stairs, and since Niall was getting tired of his crutches, he tended to fumble around a bit, grabbing onto the nearest surface to steady himself.

Liam had forced Niall to get out of the house for one day to go see a doctor about his knee and get a referral for his surgery, which was scheduled for January. Liam wondered if that was something that was weighing on Niall too, but he didn’t bring it up since it was still a couple months away and he knew that Niall was getting aggravated over his _useless excuse for a leg_.

Liam wasn’t sure what Niall was up to exactly, but he knew when they came to the house that Niall wasn’t going to let Zayn go that easily. That wasn’t to say that Liam had forgotten him, but Liam also saw how much missing and wanting to know what happened to Zayn was tearing Niall apart.

Niall’s dad had called him a few times after he heard about Zayn, but Niall didn’t pick up or call back. That was when his dad started calling Liam instead. Bobby wanted to come out and see them, but Liam said that probably wasn’t a good idea. He didn’t want to worry Bobby, but he also didn’t want Bobby to see Niall like this. Liam tried to convince Bobby that Niall would be fine, but he wasn’t sure if he believed it himself. Niall needed something; Liam didn’t know what he needed, but as amazing as Bobby Horan was, he couldn’t help his son the same way Liam couldn’t help his best friend.

Liam kept the police scanner going looking for anything weird, but everything seemed quiet. He kept tabs on the area in North Dakota, but nothing came up and he’d gotten a call from Detective Morrison saying that they weren’t continuing the investigation and that they hadn’t found the animal responsible for the deaths of all those people. Liam knows that for a while they were thinking that a person was actually behind the attacks and that they trained a large dog to kill those people. Liam knew at that point, the case was cold on the law enforcement side of things and he was grateful for it.

Liam was flipping through a book on banshees when his phone went off. That was what he had been doing for the last month; doing research for other hunters. It let him stay at the house and keep a distant eye on Niall while still feeling like he was doing some good. He looked at his phone and there was a text message from Dan, who he last heard from when word got out that they’d lost Zayn. Dan had been in Louisiana with his own group of hunters last time Liam checked so it was a little weird when he got a text from Dan asking for some assistance in a case a couple hours away.

Liam texted back. _What about Sandy and the other boys?_

In which Dan replied. Busy. _I need your help on this._

 _All right. Give me a few to think about it._ Liam replied.

 

Liam went down across the hall to Niall’s room, which was closed. When he poked his head inside, Niall was standing near the corner of the room staring at a map that he had thumbtacked to the wall. The room looked vaguely like their motel room had with papers thrown everywhere and books stacked and laid out on the floor and desk.

“Niall?” Liam said.

Niall didn’t move and just continued to stare at the map. “You know,” he started off without turning to look at Liam. “For North Dakota having hardly any fucking woods a lot of people seem to die in them.”

“Niall, I thought we were done with all that.” Liam picked up one of the papers that were on the bed. It was a weather reports for the area in North Dakota.

“I got nothing better to do.”

“You know, Zayn wouldn’t want this. You burying yourself in it like this.”

That caught Niall’s attention. He turned to face Liam. “What do you want me to do, Liam? Huh? You want me to just sit around and pretend like everything’s okay, like you do? Do you want me to cry? Break something? What? Because as far as I can tell, all this happened because of me so I’m the one that has to fix it!”

“There’s nothing to fix here, Niall. I’ve let you try to deal with this the way you wanted to but that doesn’t seem to be working. Do I wish you’d talk to me? Yeah. But I can’t force it out of you. And the more you blame yourself the worse it’s gonna get, mate. Have I been dealing with this in the best possible way? No. But I also realize that there isn’t anything else I can do. But I can’t…I can’t keep watching you do this to yourself, Niall, because that’s what’s killing me.”

Niall looked at the floor and shook his head. “You don’t get it,” he said quietly.

“What don’t I get?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Liam,” Niall said looking up to meet Liam’s gaze. “You heard me. You heard what I said during the interview with Morrison and you just pretend like you didn’t.”

“Niall, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. I didn’t hear a thing.”

“Don’t lie to me, damn it!” Niall shouted.

The abruptness startled Liam and he took a step back.

“Zayn should have never been in those woods! He wouldn’t have been at the crossroads that first time around if I hadn’t of come up with that stupid plan! And he sure as hell wouldn’t be dead right now if it wasn’t for me. I should have been the one that died, not him! He was a better person, a better friend, and a better hunter and he deserved to live a hell of a lot more than I did. I should have died in that hospital and you and him would have been fine without me! Better off, actually! But now, one your best friends are dead and I’m so fucked up and broken that I’m nothing but an anchor holding you back!”

Liam just stared at Niall waiting for him to fall to pieces. “Is that what you really think?”

“That’s what I know.”

There was a long silence between them. Neither of them moved or spoke and the tension was almost unbearable. Liam never really thought that Niall truly believed it was his fault and that was what hurt the most. Knowing that Niall thought that he was lesser in some way and that he should be dead.

Niall turned and glanced back at the map then up at Liam. “Did you need something?” he asked. “I doubt you came in here just for me to yell at you…”

“Oh, uh…I got a text from Dan. He’s on a case about two hours away and he said he could use some help, but—”

“No. You should go. I can hold down the fort.”

“You sure? I mean there’s probably someone else that in the area that can give him a hand.”

“Li, he asked you for help. And quite frankly, you’re the best man for the job.”

“Are you positive, Niall?”

“Yeah, get out of here,” Niall said casually.

“Alright then. I’ll uh text you when I get there then. You call if you need anything.”

“Yeah. Course,” Niall replied softly.

Liam had the weight of Niall’s words sitting on his shoulders. He didn’t want to leave Niall, especially now, but Niall seemed to be quiet on the subject again, because that’s how Niall seemed to deal with this. Short bursts that anchored him further and further down. Liam thought that with a little bit of time things would get better, but things only seemed to be getting worse and Niall was just getting angrier as time went on.

“Niall?” Liam contemplated what to do next, but there was only one thing he wanted to do. Within a few strides, Liam enveloped Niall in his arms, burying his face into Niall neck.

“What’s this for?” Niall didn’t wrap his arms around Liam as he usually did but placed his hands gently around Liam’s back barely even touching him.

“I love you, you know that?” Liam said into Niall’s skin.

Niall didn’t say anything. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Liam, but he didn’t feel like he deserved Liam’s love.

Liam pulled away, but his hands went to cup Niall’s face so he could look at him properly. Tears pricked Liam’s eyes as he could finally see the pain in Niall’s eyes. He didn’t want to leave. Even if was only for a day or so. His fingers ran over the short dark hair at the side of Niall’s head behind his ears.  
Niall finally dropped his gaze, unable to look a Liam any longer.

“You should get goin’,” Niall said quietly.

“Yeah, I’ll let you know what’s going on when I get there.”

Niall said nothing and he couldn’t bear to look at Liam again. He’d change his mind about the whole thing if he saw the look in Liam’s eyes. The one given to a wounded, dying animal. Niall didn’t want that, so he had to let Liam go, and by the time Niall looked back up, Liam was gone.

Niall picked up some of the papers off the edge of his bed so he could sit down in an open space. He could hear the car start and go down the dirt driveway. The papers fell from his hands and floated down to the floor. His hands trembled slightly. He stared at them wishing it would stop. His fists clenched and his knuckles turned white. He released and shook his hands aggressively to try and get rid of the shaking. He found himself doing that a lot lately, but he knew it wouldn’t go away.

He had to start the planning. He didn’t know how long he had to get it done, but he knew that he would get the job done. Niall slid from the bed to the floor, wrapped his arms around his one knee and held on, collapsing his body on himself. His bum knee was stretched out in front of him with his foot scrunching up a few papers that had gotten caught under his shoe when he slid down to the floor.

He stayed like that for a long while and closed his eyes. He wanted Liam to come back and at the same time, he didn’t want to do this to Liam. Liam wasn’t his keeper; it wasn’t up to him to save Niall.

He slowly lowered his top half so he was laying on the floor next to his bed. He didn’t know why, but it was something he needed to do. He just wanted the comfort of laying down.

He pulled his arms around himself and curled up into a ball as best he could. His brain was tired and his body ached constantly. Liam was gone so he didn’t have to pretend anymore. Liam knew that Niall wasn’t dealing with this in the best way, but the truth was, Niall hadn’t been dealing with it at all and it finally hit him.

He sucked in a labored breath as unwanted tear filled his eyes. “I want to go home,” he muttered to himself. “I just want to go home.” He didn’t know what home meant for him anymore, but this house wasn’t it, not yet anyway. He didn’t know if home was back in Ireland, with his mom, or with his dad. He thought about the first night in that old apartment they had when they first got to the United States and how instead of sleeping in separate beds in separate rooms, they all fell asleep one by one on that crappy couch they bought for the living room. He was the last one to fall asleep and he remembers laying on the couch with his head resting on Zayn’s shoulder and his leg over Liam’s lap. Maybe that was home, but he didn’t have that anymore and he never would.

Niall woke up to his phone vibrating on the nightstand. He hadn’t even realized he fell asleep until he looked at the time on his phone; it had been two hours and Liam texted him saying that he was there and that he met up with Dan.

Niall turned onto his back and stared up at the ceiling letting out a long breath. His eyes burned and he tried to blink away the tears building up, but they escaped in to his hairline.

  
Niall sat up slowly, looking around the room. He started cleaning up the room and straightening up the books, returning them to the office, hobbling up and down the stairs. He took down the map from the wall, folded it up, and put it in the box where he put the rest of the stuff. He tidied up his clothes, but didn’t both putting them away in the dresser and just put them neatly back in his duffle bag. With his slow pace, it was almost seven pm by the time he finished clearing everything from the floor, the walls, the bed, and the small desk. It was dinnertime, but as hungry as Niall was, he ignored the ached in his empty stomach to continue with his cleaning.

He went down to the kitchen and started cleaning things up down there too. He straightened up the cupboards and did the dished. His knee hurt like crazy from all the movement, but much like the pain in his stomach, he ignored it.

He felt lightheaded at one point and had to hold onto the edge of the counter to balance himself. He was tired and he should have taken something for the pain, but he went upstairs and crawled into bed hoping that he was tired enough just to fall asleep despite the pain in his body.

He woke up to an assortment of messages from Liam, some asking how Niall was doing, others commenting on the nest of vampires they were looking for, and one saying that everything had gone well and that they cleared the nest. Then another message popped up, “Not sure when I’ll be back” was all it said.

Niall put his phone back on the nightstand and rolled over in bed. His stomach hurt like crazy, but he couldn’t even think about eating. He could feel the ache creeping up his throat, but his brain wouldn’t let him eat.

He crawled out of bed and into the bathroom connected to his room. He took off his t-shirt and could see the scars on his body. His fingers brushed over the ones he hated most on his neck to his chest. He hated it because that was the one that people always stared at when he was out in public, but he also hated how he could see it every time he looked in a mirror. He turned on the shower making the water so hot that steam clouded the mirror. He sat down on the closed toilet to take off his knee brace where the material had made indents in his skin.

He got in the shower but couldn’t stand for long after he’s washed his hair and body. He wanted to curl in on himself as far as he could. His skin turned red against the heat as the water came down onto his back. He liked the heat; it was something he could feel.

Niall sat like that for a long time. He put his head to his knees and wrapped his arms around his legs. The action hurt his left knee, but he didn’t care. Tears mixed with the hot water. It was a silent cry, the kind that didn’t do any good.

The water started to turn cold and Niall was brought back to reality. He turned off the shower and climbed out, wrapping a towel around him. You can do this, he thought. He dried himself off, wrapped the towel around his waist, and went back into his room to find some clothes. He’d set out his favorite pair of blue skinny jeans and a black and white baseball tee when he was cleaning up the day before. Once he was dressed, he found his black converse in his closet where Liam had put some of his stuff way when they first moved in.

He went back into the bathroom and the mirror was clearing up from the steam as he did up his as best he could. He hadn’t done it in so long, that he almost forgot how. There was nothing he could do to help the bags under his eyes or the lack of color in his skin.

He went back out, sat down on his bed and took out his phone. Even with the time difference, his dad would still be at work, maybe just getting out. He dialed the number and prayed his dad didn’t pick up for some reason.

A few rings in and it went to voicemail.

“Uh, hey da, it’s me. I uh, I know you’re probably at work right now, but uh, I just want to call and tell you that I miss you and...” Niall paused. “I love you…take care of yourself, da. Bye.” Niall hung up. He sat there for a little bit longer and shut off his phone. He took of his necklace, the one from his birthday, wrapped the chain around the phone, and tossed it on the bed behind him.

He got up, walked around the bed, and sat down next to the nightstand. He opened the drawer and found the familiar cold metal. He held the gun in his left hand. Just stared at it and ran his thumb over the clean metal. He released the magazine. It was full. He checked the chamber. A single bullet dropped to the floor. Niall pushed the magazine back in and pulled the slide to chamber the round in one quick motion.

“Somebody help me,” he said quietly. He looked at the loaded gun and pulled back the hammer with a click. He began to rise the gun.

The sound of wind filled the room and Niall looked up to see a tall, lanky man, with curly hair and tattoos, standing in his room. Niall jumped to his feet and raised his gun to the man.

The lanky, tattooed boy had an innocence about him and the smile on his face. “Hi!” the man said brightly, unfazed by the gun pointed in his direction.

“Who the hell are you and how the hell did you get in here?” Niall said sternly.

“I’m Harry! And I guess I just sort of ‘poofed’ in here.”

“Poofed? What the hell are you?”

“I’m an angel…” Harry paused. “Of the Lord. And I’d really appreciate if you’d lower your weapon. I’m not a big fan of violence.”

Niall stared at him confused. “An angel? You’ve got to be joking. Or you’re fuckin’ nuts.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I’d like it if you’d stop swearing. It’s not very becoming.”

Niall started to lower his gun. Harry didn’t seem all that threatening. “So, if you’re an angel, what are you doing here?”

“Orders,” Harry said bashfully.

“What does that mean?”

“Heaven received your prayer and I was given orders to come down to earth and help you.”

“I didn’t pray. Haven’t in a long time. And even if that’s true, why now?”

Harry cocked his head to the side. “I think we both know the answer to that, Niall.” Harry stared into Niall’s eyes.

“I wasn’t going to do it,” Niall said defensively.

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise, Niall.”

Niall shook his head and raised his gun back up at Harry with anger in his eyes. “No!” Niall yelled. “I don’t know who or what you are, what nut house you broke out of or how you know my name, but you don’t know shit about me and I might be losing my mind, but I know sure as hell you’re not an angel, there’s no such thing!”

Niall heard a car out in the driveway and the front door open.

“Get the hell out! Get the hell away from me!” Niall yelled at Harry.

Liam’s voice rang out from downstairs, “Niall?”

“I’m not leaving you Niall. I can prove it to you…that I’m an angel,” Harry said looking into Niall’s eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘prove it’?”

Just then, the room started to shake, and an ear piercing noise echoed in the room. Niall watched as the lights dimmed and a bright light radiated around Harry and a silhouette of wings formed behind him.

The door burst open and with one look at Niall, Liam drew his gun on Harry as the noise disappeared, the lights came back on, and it appeared that Harry was just a normal person standing in front of them.

“Liam, stop!” Niall called to him, putting his hand out.

“What the hell was that and who the hell is this, Niall?” Liam had a slight panic tone in his voice.

A bright smile stretched across Harry’s face. “I’m Harry!” he said brightly, looking toward Liam, who looked confused.

“He’s an angel,” Niall said as if he was still trying to wrap his head around the idea himself.

“A what?” Liam said confused.

“An angel,” Harry answered. “And here we are once again with the guns. Do you mind lowering that?” Harry said looking from Liam’s gun to Liam’s eyes.

“Niall, why is there an angel in your room?” Liam said peering over at Niall who had put his gun down.

Harry went to speak, but Niall interrupted.

“I guess I asked for help and this is what I got. I don’t know, Liam.”

Liam lowered his gun. “So, is this like a genie thing with three wishes or does he have to sit on your shoulder or something?” Liam said half-jokingly.

“I’m here to watch over, Niall,” Harry butted in.

“What exactly does that entail?” Niall asked. “Because I’m not too big on having people follow me around.”

“I’m just here,” Harry said.

Niall didn’t really know what that meant, but he figured there wasn’t a simple answer to all this.

“Right… Uh, Niall can I talk to you for a moment in private?” Liam said gesturing toward the door.

“Yeah. Harry stay right there, Liam and I just need a minute.”

Harry beamed at Niall and nodded.

Niall scooted passed Harry and followed Liam to the hallway, closing the door behind them.

“So, let me get this straight,” Liam began in a hushed tone. “I leave for two days and you decide to adopt an angel?”

“Not exactly what happened, Liam. I really don’t know what he’s doing here.”

“He said you prayed?” Liam added.

“Not exactly, I just asked for help. I’ve done that loads of times and it didn’t set off 1-800-ANGEL on me.”

Liam pondered for a moment. “So, are we keeping him?”

“He’s not a dog, Liam. I don’t know how this whole thing works. We just need to figure out a way to get rid of him.”

“I dunno, I quite like him. He’s a bit cheeky.” Liam laughed.

Niall rolled his eyes. “We’re not keeping him.”

“Oh come on, Nialler. He seems legitimate. I mean you saw the whole…” *whoosh* Liam gestured and made a strange sound. “And how knows, maybe he could be an asset. I mean, being an angel’s probably got some perks.”

“You’re actually serious about this?”

Liam sighed and looked Niall dead in the eyes. “Niall, honestly. I think it could be really good for you, for us even. This last month and a half has been shit and if Harry can help, I say why not give it a try? He might liven the place up a bit.”

Niall thought for a moment. “Fine. We won’t kill him, but Liam, this is going to go very bad very quickly.”

“Your concern has been noted,” Liam said smiling as he went back into the room followed by a reluctant Niall.

Harry was standing in exactly the same spot.

“Good news, Harry. Niall’s decided not to kill you and we have decided that it’s okay if you stay or pop in, whatever it is you do,” Liam said brightly.

Harry’s face beamed.

Liam laughed.

Niall sighed loudly.

 

It had only been two weeks since Harry first showed up. Within that week he had, popped in and accidentally knocked over a lamp in the living room and almost got shot when Niall and Liam had gone downstairs thinking someone broke into the house, he had also broken two cereal bowls, three plates and four glass cups by scaring either Niall and Liam while in the kitchen, popped in on Niall while he was in the shower and wondered why Niall had tried to punched him in the face, and popped in while Niall was sleeping and Niall punched him in the balls…not that it fazed Harry at all.

Liam saw an article in the paper about some people missing out in the middle of Pennsylvania and went to go check it out, leaving Niall and his bum knee at the house, manning the phones and helping Liam out with the lore if it turned out to be something.

Niall sat in the office downstairs with his leg propped up on a chair he took from the kitchen.

“You know,” Harry’s voice came from behind Niall making him jump. “I could help with that if you wanted me to,” he said gesturing toward Niall’s leg.

“I’m fine, Harry,” Niall said quietly.

Harry just stood there for a while. He tended to do that and it drove Niall crazy.

Harry was a bit of an oddity to Niall. He was supposed to be an angel, but had tattoos covering his arms, and always wore black skinny jeans and boots. Harry had a slow and calming way of talking that always made Niall at ease and uneasy at the same time, but he didn’t know why.

“Did you need something, Harry? ‘Cause I’m kinda in the middle of something here.”

“Why didn’t you tell Liam?” Harry asked lightly.

“Why didn’t I tell Liam what?” Niall said partially ignoring Harry.

“Why didn’t you tell Liam about why I came?”

Niall stopped what he was doing. “’Cause I couldn’t do that to him. Not after everything that he’s done for me since…”

“Zayn?” Harry continued Niall’s sentence. Harry didn’t know every detail about what happened but he knew about what had happened to Zayn. When Niall didn’t say anything in response, Harry continued. “You were ready to go through with it, Niall. Where was Liam in that reasoning? He would’ve been the one to—”

“I know, alright? I know,” Niall said before Harry could finish.

“You still think about it sometimes…I know you do,” Harry said quietly.

“It’s complicated, Harry.”

“You should really talk to him about it. He’s your friend. He seems to care about you an awful lot.”

“I can’t do that. Doing that doesn’t just mean telling Liam I was ready to give up, that means basically telling him that he couldn’t help me and that I didn’t care enough about him to stick around,” Niall said solemnly. “He doesn’t deserve that.”

“It’s not just going to go away, Niall…those feelings you’re having. You need to tell, Liam.” Harry paused. “Or I will.”

Niall turned his head to look at Harry. “You wouldn’t.”

“Niall, my orders are to watch over you and protect you, even if you need to be protected from yourself.” Harry stared back at Niall. “You need to tell Liam.”

And just like that Harry was gone.

Niall hated that. Harry just came and went as he pleased and never had to suffer all the way through conversations. He was hard to argue with in that respect.

Niall played it over and over in his head and even just thinking about what it would do to Liam, it was killing him. He’d lied to Liam about why Harry was really there and told him that he turned his phone off because he was going to get some much needed sleep. He thought about the idea him possibly getting beyond whatever he was feeling if he told Liam, but then Liam would have to deal with it and Niall would rather he suffered through it alone rather than doing that to Liam.

Liam’s missing persons case ended up being ghouls, which Niall thought was a bit weird, but told Liam how to deal with them over the phone. Liam had asked if Niall was all right and Niall said that he was fine but that they needed to talk about something when Liam got home. Liam had been a bit hesitant to hang up after that, but Niall reassured him that everything was okay.

A couple hours later, when Niall heard Liam pull up in the driveway, Harry reappeared.

“What are you doing here, Harry?” Niall sighed pulling himself up from the couch in the living room where he’d been resting.

Harry looked awkward standing there, like he was ashamed for some reason. “About what I said earlier, it wasn’t very fair of me to put you in that kind of situation and just disappear like that. I understand why you don’t want to tell Liam, but I think it’s a good idea. It may help you both.”

“What do you mean help us both?” Niall asked. He could hear the car door slam closed outside.

“You’re not the only one that’s been in a rut. There’s a tension between the two of you and you’d both benefit from this I think.”

Niall listened for the front door, waiting for Liam. He turned to face Harry. “I don’t see how telling Liam that I planned on killing me-self is going to make things better, but—”

Niall heard bags drop onto the wooden floor in the foyer.

“What?” Liam let out. He stood there staring at Niall. His eyes portrayed both shock and sadness at the same time and Niall worried that Liam might crumble right in front of him.

“Liam…” Niall tried to backtrack. “You weren’t supposed to…ah fuck, Liam…I’m—” Niall stuttered.

“You were going to kill yourself?” Liam muttered.

“Li, I…” Niall didn’t know what to say. The look on Liam’s face broke his heart. Niall could feel the warmth leave his own skin and he could only imagine how pale his face looked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Liam shifted his weight. “Why did you tell him?” he said pointing at Harry. “And not me?”

“Liam, it wasn’t like that. That’s not how it happened. Harry…” Niall glanced back at Harry, who in turn also had a sad look on his face. “I lied to you,” he said facing back to Liam. “I lied to you about why Harry came here and I lied to you about why my phone was off. I lied to you, because I didn’t want to hurt you, Liam.”

“Hurt me?” Liam said accusingly. “You didn’t want to hurt me?” Liam’s voice was becoming angry. “Did it ever occur to you who’d find you afterward? Huh? Did you ever think about that, Niall? Did you think about what would happen to me if I lost my other best friend? I—” Liam paused. He looked like he had shattered into a million pieces and Niall knew it was his fault. “I need you to look me in the eyes, Niall. I need you to look me right in the eyes and say it, because I don’t believe it.”

In that moment, Niall wanted nothing more than to tell Liam a lie, because he couldn’t take the look on Liam’s face.

Niall stared into Liam’s eyes as a tear slipped down his cheek. Niall’s let out a shaky breath. “Liam,” he started. “Jesus Christ.” Niall ran his hands over his face to try to get rid of the tears and stared down at the floor.

“Look me in the eyes, Niall,” Liam said sternly.

Niall’s eyes met Liam’s harsh stare. “Two weeks ago…two weeks ago, I was going to kill meself. I wasn’t just thinking about doing it. I was going to do it. I was raising the gun to me head and the only reason I didn’t was because Harry showed up and stopped me.” Niall looked Liam directly in the eye. “I was going to kill myself, Liam.”

They stared at each other for a long time, but Liam broke eye contact first.

“I’m sorry, Liam,” Niall pleaded. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you anymore and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I just felt nothing for so fucking long and I just wanted it to be over. I wanted you to move on and not have to deal with me anymore—”

“Stop.” Liam still stared at the floor. “Just stop.”

Niall could tell that Liam was thinking about what exactly he wanted to say and was trying to find the right way to say it.

He was still aware that Harry was standing behind him watching the whole thing happen, but he didn’t care. This was about Liam.

“You know,” Liam began, still not looking at Niall. “You know, your dad called me that day.” Liam raised his head and looked sideways at Niall. “Your dad called me and it didn’t make sense to me at first. Like maybe I did know, but I didn’t want to think that you could be so lost Niall.”

“Liam…” Niall tried.

“No!” he shouted angrily. “No! Do you know what it’s like to hear the panic in a father’s voice when he asks you if his son is all right? Huh? To have to calm him down after his son leaves some vague ass voicemail? Do you know what it’s like to hear the sigh of relief on the other side of the phone when you tell him that his son’s still alive? Because I do, Niall! And so help me, God! I never want to hear it again!”

There was a long silence in the room as Liam just stared at Niall. “How could I not have noticed?” Liam said almost to himself. “How could I not have known? Am I really that thick that I didn’t see what was going on with you?”

“Liam, this…this wasn’t your fault. I don’t ever want you to think that,” Niall tried to reassure him. “What I was going to do was about me, not you. I tried to stay for you, but I…I couldn’t stay for myself,” Niall said quietly. “This was on me not on you. I need you…I _need_ you to understand that.”

Liam shook his head. “I can’t lose you, Niall.” He looked him straight in the eye.

“And you haven’t,” Niall said quietly.

“No, you don’t understand, Niall. I can’t lose you. I need you look me in the eye and tell me you won’t ever take your own life, Niall. I need you to promise me that you won’t do that to me.”

There was something raw about Liam’s expression as he pleaded with Niall.

Liam took a couple steps toward Niall and put his hands on Niall’s shoulders. “Promise me, Niall.”

Niall thought for a moment. He wondered if he’d be lying to Liam if he promised that he wouldn’t try it again. Maybe telling Liam he wouldn’t do it would keep him from doing it. The one thing he didn’t want to do is put Liam in more pain than he already had. “I promise, Liam. I promise you I won’t do it.”

Liam’s hands went to Niall’s face, softly holding his cheeks. Liam’s right hand went to the back of Niall’s neck and he pulled Niall into a hug.

Liam held onto Niall so tight it was as if he thought Niall might float away.

Niall held onto Liam just as tightly around Liam’s middle. He shook beneath Liam, being able to fully cry for the first time since all this happened. They held each other like that for a long time. Both just crying for themselves and each other. Something lifted off them and even though things weren’t going to get better right away, this seemed like a good start.

Liam opened his eyes and saw Harry watching them fondly. Liam mouthed a silent, “thank you” at Harry and the lanky boy just gave him a single nod of understanding.

Liam didn’t know what it was about Harry that made Liam trust him so much, but he was suddenly even more thankful for the angel’s company.

The two boys pulled away from each other.

“This is it,” Liam said. “We put all that crap in the past and we move forward from this point on. Both of us, Niall. I don’t want the next few months to be like that last. We move on from here, we stick together, and we talk to each other. All of us,” Liam said looking from Niall to Harry. “If you want to, Harry… I think it would be good for you to stay with us after all this. I mean, only if you want to or can.”

“You want me to stay?” Harry didn’t quite understand.

“It’s a big house and even though you’ve broken quite a bit of it, I think it would be alright if you wanted to drop by more often.”

A smile spread across Harry’s face showing his dimples. “I would like that very much.”

“Then it’s settled,” Liam said looking at Niall.

Niall looked at Liam with a confused look on his face. But the look in Liam’s eyes said it all. Harry was a neutral third party and if Niall couldn’t keep his promise, as hard as he might try, Harry would be there to watch over not only Niall, but the both of them.

 

The next couple of months few by rather quickly. They watched scary movies on Halloween, which Harry popped in at the exact moment the killer showed up in the movie. Liam and Niall yelled and grabbed onto each other sending popcorn flying across the room. Harry’s response was to scream in terror, because they screaming and he ended up making the lights go out in the entire house.

They attempted a real American Thanksgiving, which both Niall and Liam cooked. Harry wanted to help, but after he broke one glass measuring cup and the ceramic pie plate, Niall figured it would be best if Harry just watched from a distance.

As weird and slightly annoying Niall found Harry to be, the lanky doof lighten the place up quite a bit. Niall still wasn’t one hundred percent, but since Harry started showing up more, Liam noticed an improvement in Niall’s mood. He had started eating more and talking to Liam about things. They both kept a silent eye on Niall, watching for any signs that he might do something, but that consisted mostly of small looks Niall would make when he thought no one was looking and little side comments about his mental instability.

Liam still went on small hunts while Niall stayed at home and Harry would stay at the house with him while Liam was gone. It drove Niall crazy, because he never got much time to himself ever since he opened up to Liam. He didn’t feel like Liam was watching to see if he would try it again, but that he was watching so that he wouldn’t miss any of the signs if they came up.

Niall still thought about Zayn often. He’d finally gotten around to calling Zayn’s parents himself. Niall got drunk soon after hanging up. He spent the next two nights afterward sleeping in Liam’s bed, because he didn’t want to be alone.

Once they’d gotten him through that, Niall was back on track and seemed to be in good spirits. He called his own parents and his dad mentioned how much better he sounded from his last call. They didn’t tell him that they’d been talking to Liam and checking in on him.

They got a small Christmas tree about half way through December and put it in front of the large picture window in the living room, plus a few other decorations. It snowed a lot and the roads were rarely plowed, so they stayed at the house most of the time. Liam wanted to go outside and enjoy the snow, but Niall still had his knee brace and on rare occasions, his crutches and as much fun as Harry was to teach new things too, his vessel got cold out in the snow and Liam and Niall didn’t have any jackets that would fit his lanky frame. Harry explained to them at one point that his vessel was empty and that the person’s soul was already up in heaven, but he still got cravings for tacos every once in a while. The kid was a bit of a drifter, but he was always very generous and kind to other people. He had been stabbed and he bled to dead on a sidewalk in London. Harry didn’t take over the vessel until the boy had said ‘yes’ and his soul had gone to heaven where he belonged.

It was 3:37 in the morning on Christmas Eve and Niall couldn’t sleep. He had been trying for four hours with no luck whatsoever. His knee was bothering him again and he could feel a slight pulsating feeling under his scars. He got up and grabbed his crutches from where they leaned against the wall and went downstairs. He thought about watching some television, but wasn’t really in the mood for it, so he went to the study and looked over the bookshelves in there, but found nothing.

He’d been cooped up in that house for so long that it all seemed too familiar. He wanted to go on hunts again with Liam, but his body wasn’t in the best of shape for doing that and he liked sleeping in the same bed every night for a change.

He went back out into the hallway. He saw the double doors that led out to the back deck. If there wasn’t a foot of snow, he would have gone outside just for a few minutes for a change of scenery.

Niall then noticed the door that led down to the basement. He’s noticed the door before, but the stairs were a bit steep so they were hard for him to go up and down. Liam had been down there a couple times to look for stuff and to turn the lights back on on Halloween. Niall figured the worst that would happen would be that he feel down the stairs and had to wait until Liam go up for him to help him.

Niall left his crutches leaning against the wall in the hallway and very carefully, made his way down the steep stairs with a death grip on the railing.

Liam said something to Niall about the basement being a little creepy, but Niall liked exploring places and he’s not sure why it took him so long to do this.

He got to the last step and peered around looking for a light switch. When he finally found it, the lights turned on in the one-half of the basement area. The basement, although half finished, was a little creepy. It didn’t seem to have been cleaned in a while and there was extra furniture piled up on the right side up against the wall. Near the center of the room was a rock wall that looked to be about 8’ by 6’ rectangle. At first, he thought it might be a fireplace, but that would mean that there was a chimney running up through the middle of the house and he felt like he would have noticed a blockade like that going up and down the stairs.

On this side of the wall, there was a large cabinet up against the rocks. Niall limped over to the other side and found that there were wooden doors that went into the rock. He pulled the doors and inside was various weapons and supplies. As good as it was to know that was there Niall didn’t really understand how a rock structure was needed to hold those things. There were a few guns of different calibers, a few knives, holy water, salt, a few rations, a medical kit, and a couple backpacks.

He grabbed one of the flashlights from one of the shelves and turned it on. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he figured that there must be some reason for all this extra protection.

He felt around looking for a hidden latch or something. He felt like he was in an episode of _Scooby-Doo_ and he was about to find the hidden layer, but he couldn’t find anything.

He closed the closet doors and limped back over to the other side. He stared at the rock structure for a long time. He stood back a ways and observed the wooden cabinet that leaned up against the rocks. “It’s too perfect,” he muttered to himself.

Niall heard wind blowing then silence.

“What’s too perfect?” Harry stood behind Niall curiously.

Niall had started recognizing the noise that came with Harry’s entrance into a room. He was getting tired of breaking things every time Harry popped in on him unexpectedly and started noticing the signs that come with it.

“The cabinet it too perfect,” Niall said.

“I didn’t know you were into woodworking?” Harry said as almost a question.

“No, not the cabinet itself, but the way that it sits up against the rocks. There’s no space in between the two of them.” Niall hobbled forward aiming the flashlight at the back of the cabinet where it met the rocks. “See, there’s no space.”

“I don’t understand,” Harry said looking at where Niall was pointing.

Niall went passed Harry to the front of the cabinet and opened the doors. There wasn’t anything inside and Niall was met with the wooden back of the cabinet. He felt all around the back of it looking for something.

“Niall are you feeling alright?” Harry began to worry.

“I’m fine, Harry. There’s just something weird about this cabinet.” At this point, Niall had climbed all the way inside the cabinet and was scrunched up looking searching it with his flashlight.

“I think I’m gonna go get Liam,” Harry said backing away from the cabinet and Niall.

Suddenly, Niall poked his head out and grabbed Harry by his t-shirt. “No. No Liam. He doesn’t need to know about this.” Niall let go of Harry and went back into the cabinet.

Niall’s fingers skimmed along the inner frame, just inside the cabinet doors, when he finally felt something. He flicked it up and he heard the sound of a door unlocking and the back of the cabinet squeaked open. Niall looked at Harry then pushed the door open a little ways. The door itself was about three inches thick and had a metal backing. It opened into a tight space, which then seemed to disappear down a set of stairs. Niall looked back at Harry.

“Alright, now you can go get Liam,” he said. “I think we just found Narnia.”

Niall could hear Harry disappear and so he climbed out of the cabinet and waited for Harry to wake Liam up.

Harry reappeared about a minute later with a terrified and half-asleep Liam. “What the bloody hell is going on!” he said loudly looking around wondering if they were being attacked.

“Christ Harry, all you had to do was wake him up you didn’t have to poof him down here like that,” Niall said half seriously, as he was trying not to laugh at the frantic and confused look of Liam’s face.

Liam’s eyes focused. “Niall why am I down in the basement when I should be in bed?”

Niall laughed nervously. “I bet you’re happy you wore pants to bed last night, eh Liam?”

Liam looked at Niall unamused. He stood there in a light pair of sweatpants, no shirt, and no shoes.

“Right, so uh I found something that I think you’ll want to see.” Niall stepped aside and raised his hands gesturing toward the secret door in the cabinet. “Tah-da!”

Liam squinted and looked at the door as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He examined it a while before he said anything. “So what’s down there? Is it like the Chamber of Secrets or something?”

“Don’t know haven’t gotten that far yet,” Niall said.

“Well, give me a moment to get some clothes and shoes on and we’ll check it out,” Liam said he went to take a step forward and Harry started putting his hand out as if he were going to zap Liam back up stairs. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. No. No more poofin’ about, I’ve had enough for one day, thank you very much, but I’m going to take the stairs.” He walked passed Harry and started up the stairs.

Liam came back down with sneakers, a t-shirt, and two sweatshirts in his hands as well as Niall’s crutches. “If I’m not mistaken, you’re supposed to be using these.” He handed one of the sweatshirts to Niall and waited for him to put it on before he handed over the crutches.

Niall gave Liam one of the flashlights and a .38 revolver that was in the closet on the other side. Niall slipped a knife with a leather holster into the pocket of his sweatpants. He couldn’t be sure what they might find down there and he wanted to be prepared.

Liam went down the stairs in the passageway first, carrying Niall’s crutches for him while between the wall and Harry’s help Niall went down the stairs without incident. Niall gave Harry the other flashlight and got his crutches from Liam.

“I feel like James, should have mentioned something about a having a secret passageway under the house we’re living in,” Niall said as they started down the long dark hallway.

“He mentioned something to me once about his father being a bit paranoid or prepared or something like that once,” Liam said. “Maybe James doesn’t even know about it.”

“Well, he neglected to tell us a few things about this place, so it surprise me,” Niall said.

They’d been walking for almost fifteen minutes before they came to three separate halls going off in different directions.

“So, now what,” Harry asked, his voice echoing.

“We are not splitting up. Who knows where these lead to,” Niall commented.

“I agree with Niall, we should all go in one direction and see where each passage leads,” Liam said. “Starting with this one.” Liam headed down the first passage to the right.

Luckily, each passageway didn’t have any surprises hiding for them. Each one led to a different place, one came out to where Niall was pretty sure they were still on the house property, but the first and middle passageways took a little longer to get through and led much further away from the house than they expected.

Niall talked about the other items in the closet on the other side of the opening in the basement and they came to the conclusion that James’ father was probably both paranoid and prepared. That was something they could understand. In their line of work, they were always the ones doing the hunting and sometimes things came after them instead. The boys were silently thankful for finding the passageways, but hoped they would never have to use them.

When they got back to the main house it was almost six in morning, Niall went into the study to see if he could find anything books or papers on the layout or the history of the land the house was built on.

Around eight o’clock, Liam had a small breakfast made and Niall hobbled his way in without his crutches. He had a few papers with him and he put them on the table.

“So, I figured it out,” he said eating a forkful of eggs. “The passageways were built when they put in the original foundation for the house, which was a heck of a lot smaller. Though the funny and I guess, good part is that none of the maps or floorplans have the tunnels in them. They’re mentioned all of twice in the three huge files I found, which pertained to the house.

“How is that good?” Liam said sitting down at the table.

Harry was sitting at the table playing with flashlight he still had since they got back. He was trying to figure out how it worked.

In reference to Liam’s question, Niall began, “Well, if the tunnels are supposed to be for making a quick escape and whoever’s after us goes through the study and finds maps detailing the ins and outs of the whole system, we’d be in a bit of trouble. But this way, bad guys know nothing, because there is nothing.” Niall took another bite of his eggs.

“I suppose you’re right,” Liam said sliding a cup of tea in front of Niall.

Harry flipped the flashlight on, blinding Niall who was sitting across the table. Niall leaned over and snatched the flashlight out of Harry’s hands. “Gimme that,” he said grouchily, putting the flashlight out of Harry’s reach.

 

They tried to do a proper Christmas the next day. Niall got up early to make breakfast for him and Liam, who came downstairs and started the water for the tea. Harry popped in when Niall was finished getting everything on the table.

They went into the living room and Niall put on some Christmas music while they sat and finished their tea.

“We never got a tree topper,” Liam said looking at the empty top of their Christmas tree.

“Well, we could always just plunk Harry on top as our Christmas angel,” Niall giggled into his cup.

Harry, who wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t hear what Niall said other than his own name, looked confused. “What’s so funny?”

Niall peered over at Liam and the two boys just laughed while imagining Harry sitting on top of their small Christmas tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter takes us into 2014! and it probably won't be until the week of March 7th when I post it since I have papers and midterms this week. Love you guys! Let me know what you think!


	5. Everybody Needs Someone Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Niall centric chapter!!! YAY!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long to post. I had midterms and then spring break, so I didn't have a lot of time to work on it during the day. (I'm been staying up until 4am to get this done. Plus, my anxiety was a little wonky at the beginning of the week. This chapter is more cute than drama. Bit of a breather from the heavier stuff.

New Year’s Eve 2013

Niall sat on the floor in front of the couch. Their Christmas decorations were still up and Liam had gotten a fire going in the fireplace. 

Liam came back in from the kitchen and handed Niall another beer and set one down on the end table for himself. They had a game of Fifa to play and music played softly in the background. 

“You’re going down, Payno,” Niall snickered. 

“Bring it,” Liam said back playfully.

They were getting the most they could out of the next few days since Niall’s knee surgery was scheduled around the middle of the month. Niall told Liam that they were going to half to get drunk and do something stupid. The getting drunk part they were already getting started on, but the doing something stupid was a little harder. The gaming unit and accompanied games was Niall’s Christmas present to Liam. 

Liam had gotten Niall an assortment of funky colored socks and a new acoustic guitar since he had to leave his back in Ireland.

So, when they weren’t helping someone else out on a case, they were playing video games, and if they weren’t playing video games then Niall was playing his guitar.

They hadn’t seen Harry in a few days. They both chipped in and got Harry a cell phone with both of their numbers programed into it, as well as a few emergency contacts in case something happened to the two of them. Niall and Liam spent most of Christmas day teaching Harry how to use the phone, which was mostly them laughing because of Harry’s utter fascination with the device. 

A few minutes before midnight, Niall and Liam turned on the TV and watched the ball drop in New York, counting down along with it. They toasted the New Year by clicking their half-empty beer bottles together. 

“Happy New Year, Li,” Niall said still sitting on the floor.

“Happy New Year, Nialler,” Liam smiled and took a sip of his beer.

 

Neither of them made it to their bed that night. They both woke up with the sun blaring through the picture window in the living room. Liam was sprawled across the couch with his arm hanging over the side by Niall’s head where he was in a heap on the floor with random blankets and pillows thrown over him.

“Niall?” Liam’s groggy voice rang out as his hand flitted around, his fingertips brushing against Niall’s tousled hair. “Niall?” Liam said a little louder. “You alive down there, mate?”

Niall groaned and moved slightly. Pulling the blankets up over his head to block out the sun.

“I’ll take that as a maybe…” Liam said running a hand over his face. “What time is it?”

Another mumble came from the floor, which sounded like, “Who the fuck cares?”

Liam sat up on the couch. “I already regret sleeping on this thing. My back did not enjoy that at all.” Liam twisted slightly and could feel his back crack with a popping sound. Empty beer bottles and a half a bottle of whiskey covered the floor around Niall and the two end tables. 

Liam didn’t remember most of what happened after the ball dropped, but now all he could think about was how badly he needed a wee. He looked down at the floor trying to figure out his best route out of there without stepping on Niall or any of the empty bottles. 

Liam stood and as he went to step over Niall, Niall moved and caught Liam’s foot, sending him to the floor landing across Niall. He heard Niall groan loudly underneath him followed by a few words that Liam didn’t understand because they were slathered in Niall’s Irish accent and the blanket over Niall head.

“Sorry, Nialler,” Liam said as he tried to pick himself back up. He didn’t even stand up with the second try and just crawled across the floor to the bathroom next to the kitchen. 

He came back out and Niall was still on the floor with only faint traces of blonde hair stick out from underneath the blanket.

Liam made his way into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of water. The room filled with the sound of wind and Liam closed the fridge and Harry was standing there staring at him with a big smile on his face.

“Hi, Harry” Liam deadpanned. 

Harry’s smile turned into confusion. “What’s wrong? Where’s Niall?”

“What? Nothing? Niall’s over there,” Liam said waving his hand toward the living room. 

“Then why are you so sad?” 

Liam looked at Harry for a moment. “Bit of a hangover this morning Harry, that’s all.”

“What did you hang over?” Harry gasped.

“No, Harry. A hangover. Me and Nialler had a bit too much alcohol last night.” Liam took a sip of his water and grabbed another one out of the fridge. 

Liam walked over to where Niall was and placed the water on the floor next to him. “Here you go, Nialler. Drink some water, mate.”

A hand crept out from underneath the blanket and grabbed the bottle. “Thanks, Li,” Niall mumbled and pulled the water under the blanket.

Liam went back to the kitchen. 

“Are you sure he’s alright?” Harry asked.

“He’s fine, Harry. Niall’s Irish, he can hold his liquor…though,” he paused peering over at the lump on the floor. “We may want to keep an eye on him.”

Harry watched as Liam put some bread in the toaster. 

“Can I help you with something, Harold, or are you just going to hover?” Liam said as he went to the sink to fill the kettle.

“Well, I heard a prayer and I thought I should make sure that you were both alright. It was a bit incoherent,” Harry said with a pouty yet confused look on his face.

“Ah, that might have been Niall. He was mumbling about something, might have accidently prayed or whatever. Though, if that is the case, your pray-dar is pretty sensitive. Might want to dial it back a bit, especially the next couple weeks.” Liam put the kettle on the stove.

“What’s happening in the next couple weeks?” Harry asked.

“Niall’s got his knee surgery. He’s gonna be pretty out of it, plus rehab is gonna be a pain in the arse. This was kind of a last hurrah for a while. Hence the uh…” Liam gestured toward the living room. “The uh, Irish blob in there.”

“You know I might be able to fix it,” Harry said. “That way Niall wouldn’t have to go through all of that.”

“What do you mean by ‘might’?” Liam asked. 

“Well, I’m not exactly in the higher class of angels and I haven’t spent a lot of time on earth, so I don’t know if I could do it.” Harry paused and thought for a moment. “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do it, actually.”

Liam looked at him. “It’s alright, Harry. Nialler’s knees have always been shit. This surgery’s been a long time coming.” Liam smiled at Harry and Harry returned one sheepishly.

“I’m sorry I can’t help more. I know I’m a bit of an annoyance to you both.” Harry’s gaze went to the floor.

“You’re not,” Liam tried to comfort. “You gave me Niall back and you brought us both back into the light. I wouldn’t have Niall at all if it weren’t for you, Harry. We don’t just keep you around because we think there is something that you can do for us or want from you. I like having you here. Brightens the place up.” Liam could see the smile return to Harry’s face.

“I quite like being here,” Harry said looking up at Liam.  
There was movement in the living room and Liam and Harry watched as Niall slowly got to his feet, looked around, and with the blanket still wrapped around him shuffled across the hall to the bathroom. Liam and Harry exchanged looks and laughed as the door to the bathroom closed as quietly as possible.

 

Two weeks later, the front door opened and Liam helped Niall, who was still pretty out of it, into the house and to the couch for the time being.

“Leeyum…” Niall sang out. 

“Just stay on the couch for a minute, Nialler. I got to get the rest of your stuff from the car.” Liam said helping Niall into a laying position on the couch, propping up his thickly bandaged knee with one of the pillows. 

“Leeyum, dooonnn’ttt leeaaavvee meee,” Niall caroled. 

“I’ll be right back, Niall. Just don’t try to move.” 

Before Niall could say anything else, Liam was already out the door to get Niall’s new crutches and new medication.

When Liam came back in, Niall was sound asleep on the couch and Liam didn’t bother waking him to get him upstairs to bed.

Liam moved around the kitchen quietly so he wouldn’t wake Niall. He made a sandwich for himself and stood by the counter, looking across the hallway to the living room. Liam sighed a grabbed a beer from the fridge. 

Liam was in the study when he heard a faint groan come from the living room. He went out and found Niall trying to sit up on the couch. He hurried over. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. No moving,” he said putting a hand on Niall’s shoulder.

“I don’t feel so good,” Niall mumbled.

“You don’t feel good as in pain or like you’re gonna be sick?” 

“Both. Maybe. I don’t know.” Niall pushed against Liam’s hand on his shoulder and tried to sit up anyway. 

“I was reading through your medications and you have to eat something when you take them, so what do you want to do, mate?” Liam knelt down next to the couch.

“Food. Drugs. Sleep,” Niall muttered closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

“Alright, sounds like a plan.” 

Liam went back out to the kitchen to make Niall some toast and grab a water from the fridge so he could take his meds. 

“Here.” Liam handed the plate and the bottle over the back of the couch to Niall. 

Once Niall had eaten his toast, Liam handed him a couple pills. “You going to be okay to get upstairs? Trust me when I tell you that couch won’t make your back too happy.”

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Niall said chasing the pills down with some water.

Niall sat there with his eyes closed for a moment before his hands shot up. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

Liam situated himself under Niall’s arm and helped him off the couch. Niall was still a little shaky on his feet and he couldn’t put pressure on his knee at all, so he put almost all his weight on Liam.

Liam held on to Niall as tightly as possible as he ushered them toward the stairs. “Ready?” Liam asked look at Niall.

Niall nodded and Liam grabbed on to the banister and started pulling them up the stairs. By the time they got to the top, Liam could feel the slight pain in his arms from holding Niall up and pulling them up step by step making sure that he had a firm grip on the railing.

Liam got Niall to his room and lowered him down onto the bed, heling Niall to get settled comfortably under the covers and a pillow under his knee. 

“Get some sleep, yeah?” Liam said as he smiled and turned off the lights to Niall’s room.

Liam went back downstairs and told himself to start using some of the exercise equipment they found in the basement. It was something that he had worked into his routine when he was on the road by himself, but since he’s been taking care of Niall and helping other hunters out with cases, he hasn’t really had the time to hit the gym.

Liam went to the study and sat at the desk. He wished he had something to do. He couldn’t really leave the house just in case Niall needed him. In the time that they had been there Liam had already read the entire Harry Potter series again. Not to mention when he and Niall did a Harry Potter movie marathon that took an entire day to finish.

Liam was at a bit of a loss. Things were good with Niall and having Harry around seemed to help, but Harry wasn’t always around, so it was hard to really rely on him for much. Niall seems more at ease when he’s having a bad day and Harry’s around. It was almost like Liam knew too much about Niall’s past and so Harry was a new addition that, as far as they knew, did not know every single thing they’ve done or seen.

Liam heard the sound of wind and new that Harry must be standing right behind him. “Hi, Harry,” Liam said spinning around in the desk chair. 

Harry’s face was screwed in a bit of a pout. “I liked it better when you were scared when I showed up. Now it feels like you’re never happy to see me.” Harry frowned.

“I’m happy to see you, Harry. I just know when you are here. I’m learning,” Liam said with a smile that seemed to put Harry at ease.

“Where’s Niall?” Harry said looking around. 

“Nialler’s upstairs resting,” Liam said standing up. 

“Resting?”

“Yeah, he got his knee surgery, so he’s a bit out of it. Barely even managed to get him up the stairs.” Liam walked past Harry toward the hallway and into the kitchen with Harry following behind him.

“You could have asked for help. I would have come,” Harry said. There was a slightly hurt tone in his voice.

“I know you would have, but…” Liam turned away from Harry.

“But what?” 

“I don’t know. I’ve been so grateful for everything that you’ve done, you know that. I just…I don’t know.” Liam stopped. “I guess I just want to know that I can still take care of Niall by myself.”

“I don’t understand,” Harry said cocking his head to the side, his eyebrows knitted together.

Liam turned and looked up at Harry. “You saved Niall’s life Harry, when I couldn’t…when I couldn’t do anything. I don’t want to have to feel like I need to rely on you to save him, because I don’t want to do that to you. You aren’t just some magical cure for everything, Harry. We don’t keep you around for your wings; we keep you around because we like you. I don’t want you to think we’re…I don’t know…using you, I guess. You’re our friend.”

Harry pondered Liam’s words for a moment before saying anything in response. “Well, then as your friend, I won’t let you do this alone, then.” Harry said simply. “From what I understand, friends lean on each other when they need help. It shouldn’t be up to you to do this by yourself. So, I’m here.”

“Thanks, Harry.” Liam smiled.

Liam went upstairs to check on Niall, but he was sleeping, so Liam went back down and started going through police reports, looking for anything weird. 

He came across something in Pennsylvania about a string of what looked like suicides, but was still unconfirmed. Liam sat back in the chair. He sent a couple texts out to a few hunters to see if anyone was in there area, but he didn’t have any luck.

“Crap.” Liam read over the reports again. It definitely seemed like their sort of thing.

“Everything alright, Liam,” Harry said poking his head into the office. Harry had been in the living room watching something on the TV, which Liam couldn’t make out at the time.  
“Yeah, I just caught wind of this case and no one else is in the area to check it out…”

“So, what’s the problem?” Harry asks leaning against the doorframe.

“I can’t just leave, Niall, plus…” Liam stopped.

“Plus what?” Harry questioned.

“They are saying that the victims are committing suicide.” Liam looked at his hands.

“Oh.” Harry walked into the study and knelt down in front of Liam. Green eyes wide open and endearing, Harry placed a hand on Liam’s fidgeting fingers. “Liam, whether or not this is something that needs to be hunted, it sounds like there are some people out there who could use your help, just like Niall did.”

“But I couldn’t do anything for Niall. You did. You could.” Liam looked up at Harry with his sad brown eyes. “Maybe you should be the one to help them.”

Harry sighed. “Let me ask you a question,” Harry said gently. “Do you want to help these people, Liam?”

Liam nodded his head.

“These people might have someone like you in their lives that couldn’t help them when the time came, but you can do for them what I came here to do for Niall. If there is one thing I’ve learned about people, Liam, it’s that sometimes people can’t go to the people who care about them for help it’s like they’ve been around them too long that anything that is wrong with that person is seen as normal. Whether or not this is a case with witches, ghosts, demons, people need you, Liam.”

“Are you just trying to get rid of me?” Liam said wiping the tears welling up in his eyes. Liam had thought about what Harry was saying before but figured that he couldn’t help Niall because he wasn’t good enough to help Niall.

“I promise I’m not trying to get rid of you, but I am telling you that you are a person who likes to help people and you’re good at it, so why not go?” Harry smiled.

“What about Niall? I can’t just leave him in his bed for however long this will take, plus he needs help with showering and taking his meds and food and—”

“I’ll do it!” Harry said brightly, cutting Liam off. “Maybe just make a list of everything I need to do and I have your number in the phone you gave me so if I need anything I can just call you like Niall showed me. Plus, I feel like Niall and I need some bonding time together. He doesn’t seem overly fond of me sometimes.”

Liam laughed. “He can be a bit of a grump sometimes. He’s usually very happy-go-lucky, but he holds a lot of stuff in and keeps the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s a lot tougher than people give him credit for.” Liam stared off for a moment like he was thinking about something. Liam shook himself back to reality. “Are you sure about this?”

“Really pretty sure.” Harry smiled. “As long as he doesn’t try to shoot me again,” Harry said putting a hand on Liam’s thigh and lifting himself up off the floor where he was kneeling.

“I can’t make any promises on that.” Liam chuckled. “I’ll start on that list.”

“Great!” Harry said with e big smile on his face.

Liam made his way toward the doorway, “Oh and another thing. Niall is the type that will always say he’s all right even if he has a fever of 103 and is coughing his lungs out, so don’t let him get away with anything like that. He just had a major knee surgery and isn’t allowed to walk on it at all. Okay?”

Harry nodded and followed Liam out to the kitchen, where he started putting together a list and showing Harry how to use the microwave, the toaster, and most importantly how to make a cup of tea. “Niall likes his strong with three sugars,” Liam explains while making a cup and writes it down for him just in case. “Easy to remember since I take mine the same way,” Liam chuckles.

Liam looks at his watch. “I think that’s about everything. I have to get going if I don’t want to be stuck in traffic for the rest of my life. So either in two hours you can give Niall another one of these or if he’s still sleeping just wait for him to wake up. Those ones are just if he’s in pain and these,” Liam says picking up another prescription bottle. “These are to prevent infection. I’ve marked all the lids and wrote down when he can take them. I have to go pack a bag real quick then I gotta go.” 

Liam came back downstairs a few minutes later with a small dufflebag in one hand and the car keys in another. “Call me if anything happens or if you have a question about anything.”

Harry nodded and with one final look, Liam was out the door.

The house was unnaturally silent. Harry was used to music playing or Niall playing his guitar up in his room, something. This was just quiet. 

Harry walked slowly up the stairs. That was Liam and Niall’s one request; that while Harry was in the house, no poofing about, he had to walk and take the stairs just like they did.

Harry opened the door to Niall’s room and peeked inside. It was dark, but there was just enough light that Harry could see that Niall was sleeping. 

He didn’t really know what he was supposed to do aside from the list that Liam gave him, so he went in and sat in the armchair near Niall’s bed.

He watched at Niall’s chest rose as he breathed in and then deflated. It was weird seeing Niall asleep, mainly because he looked so relaxed. Harry was so used to Niall being worried or worked up over something that wasn’t his fault that is was weird to see him without a care in the world.

About twenty minutes later, Niall’s eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the dark room. He breathed out a pained sigh and that’s when he noticed someone was in the room. “Liam,” he said quietly.

“Actually,” Harry said leaning forward so his face hit the little bit of light still coming in from the window. “It’s me. Harry.”

“Where’s Liam?” Niall said slightly frantic and he tried to sit up.

“Niall, I don’t think you’re supposed to move.” Harry got to his feet.

“Where’s Liam?” Niall asked again, ignoring Harry.

“He’s fine, Niall. He caught a case nearby and I said that I would stay with you.” Harry smiled trying to reassure Niall that everything was okay.

“So, what? You thought you’d just sit my room and watch me sleep? This ain’t Twilight and I can take care of meself.” Niall tried sitting up again.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be doing much moving,” Harry said watching at Niall’s face twisted in pain.

“I’m fine,” Niall said giving up on moving.

“Liam said you’d try and pretend that you were fine.” Harry sat back down in the chair.

“I ain’t pretending,” Niall said harshly.

“Niall, one day I hope that you won’t have to pretend to be all right anymore,” Harry said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“It means that you have to let people in. You can be strong and still feel something.” Harry stood and walked towards the door.

“Can you at least get me my pain meds?” Niall called from the bed.

“In about an hour and a half I can get you your pain meds.” Harry smiled at Niall and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

 

Harry kept an eye on the clock while he sat on the couch watching TV. He liked TV and new that at least Liam didn’t mind him watching it every now and then. 

Harry knew he would be met with two possible versions of Niall when he went back upstairs when it was time for Niall’s meds. He was either going to get a sleeping Niall or a slightly pissed off and in pain Niall. He was hoping for the former. 

He peeked into Niall’s room, a glass of water and Niall’s medication in hand. The light by the bed was on and Niall was laying there with his eyes squeezed shut. 

“Niall?” Harry said quietly, entering the room.

Niall’s eyes opened slightly. He was breathing heavily through his nose and his jaw was clenched tightly. “Harry…” Niall breathed out. “It hurts,” he whimpered.

Harry hurried over to the bed and set the glass down and took a couple tries to open the small orange container. He poured one into his hand and gave it to Niall along with the water. 

Niall sat up just enough to down the pill and half the water before handing it back to Harry.

Niall was sweating slightly so Harry pulled back the blankets a little. His eyes were knitted shut and he curled himself up as well as he could without twisting his knee at all.

“Niall?” Harry said gently. “I’m going to try something, alright? It should help a bit.” Harry pulled back the sheet that still covered Niall and exposed his left knee. It was still thickly bandaged and propped up slightly with a small pillow. Harry placed one hand on Niall’s calf just below the white bandages and the other on his thigh just above it.

“What are you doing?” Niall whispered.

Harry didn’t answer, but closed his eyes and concentrated. He pulled the pain from Niall’s leg and drew it into himself.

Harry opened his eyes and watched as Niall’s muscles relaxed and the tension left his face. He was breathing normally again and his eyes stared at the ceiling thankful for the bit of piece.

Harry sat still as he felt Niall’s pain disappear and dissolve inside of him.

“To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure that would work,” Harry huffed out.

They both sat there in silence. Harry was happy that it worked and Niall was just relieved.

Niall sat up slightly and looked at Harry. “Can I ask you a question?”

Harry looked right at Niall. “Of course. Anything.”

“Why are you here? Like I know why you were sent here but why you specifically? I mean I feel like there are more important things that you could be doing, so what did you do to end up here?”

Harry looked at Niall with soft eyes and a small smile. “I uh…there were things happening in Heaven a while back and I didn’t exactly agree with them and when my superiors tried to force my hand I refused to partake.”

“Well, that isn’t vague at all,” Niall chuckled.

Harry took a moment. “They were using torture as a way to get answers from the enemies of Heaven and I believed that we were better than that. Torture is a practice of Hell and to do it once is to do it again…I didn’t want that and my superiors weren’t happy about that. I’m a low-level angel. It was easier for them to just get rid of me and keep an eye on me this way rather than keep me doing my duties in Heaven. But to be honest, I like it better here. People don’t pretend to be perfect, angels do.”

“So, did heaven really want to save me or we’re they just punishing you?”

“You were the priority,” Harry assured him. “When I refused to use torture, I got moved to a different garrison. The ones who watch over the humans. Orders came down and I volunteered myself to come down to earth and…interrupt you. You are very important to Heaven, Niall. You’re important to a lot of people.”

Niall sat silently for a moment. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For coming down here,” Niall said fidgeting with the edge of one of the blankets. “I don’t want that anymore. Not just because of Liam, but I’ve realized how it might do more harm than good.”

“Good,” Harry said simply.

Niall smiled. It was genuine and pure in a way that Harry had never seen before. There was something different about Niall, from other humans that Harry’s come into contact with in the past. Niall was an exception and Harry didn’t know why, but he was, and Harry was going to protect Niall with everything he had. He felt bound to Niall in some way, like their meeting wasn’t just lucky or a coincidence; it was supposed to happen.

Niall had had enough of sleep, not enough sleep, but he was getting bored of sleeping. 

“Harry, go over and open the cabinet over there,” Niall said gesturing toward the large wooden cabinet hat sat across from his bed against the wall, next to the door to his room.

Harry got up and opened the doors. In the cabinet, was a flat screen TV. 

“Alright now, see the two remotes there? Toss ‘em over to me,” Niall instructed.

Harry tossed the remotes over gently, landing next to Niall on the bed.

“Okay now, go through that stack of DVDs there.” Niall pointed at the stack of ten or so DVDs that say just inside the cabinet next to the TV. “And find the one that says, Thor, on it.” Niall waited as Harry rifled through the DVDs and then held one up. “Yep that one. Take out the disc.” Niall pressed a button on one of the remotes and the DVD player opened. “Put the disc on there. Yep just like that. And come have a seat, Harold,” Niall said patting the open space on the bed beside him. 

Harry came over and took off his shoes before climbing onto the bed next to Niall. 

“You ready for this?” Niall said looking over at Harry.

“I don’t really know what’s happening but sure,” Harry said looking slightly confused at Niall.

“We are watching a movie, Harry. I would have started us on Iron Man, but I want your opinion about this one and the characters. I think it might me kind of entertaining,” Niall said with a small chuckle. He turned on the TV and started the DVD.

 

“Wait, so that’s supposed to be Loki?” Harry asked pointing at the screen.

“Yeah…” Niall said, unsure of what Harry’s response was going to be.

“Have you ever met a trickster? They are so conniving and petty; this doesn’t even get to the half of it.” Harry said exasperatedly.

“I take it you don’t like tricksters very much, Harold?” Niall questioned.

“No, I don’t. Gods or not, they don’t use their powers as they should, they are so hell-bent on getting the last laugh that they can’t be trusted.”

“I always pegged you more as the type who would look beyond that sort of thing and be all accepting or whatever,” Niall said looking from the movie to Harry.

“I’m not saying we should go out and kill them, Niall. That wouldn’t be right, but they are a pain in the ass,” Harry said crossing his arms over his chest.

“Wow, language, Harold. I didn’t even know you knew how to curse,” Niall said with a laugh.

“Just watch the movie, ya little leprechaun,” Harry said jokingly.

“Oohh, now the sass is coming out,” Niall chuckled.

“Angel or not, knee or not, Niall, I will push you out of this bed,” Harry said trying to keep a straight facing looking at Niall.

Niall laughed loudly and couldn’t stop laughing. “Oh, my god. Me cheeks hurt from smiling so much,” he said in between fits of laughter.

Harry rolled his eyes at Niall and shifted his gaze back to the movie.

Niall fell asleep just before the credits started. Harry wasn’t sure what to do so he just sat there next to Niall and watched as the final scene came up at the end of the credits. He didn’t really understand it, but he thought he might ask Niall what happened later on. 

Niall woke up again a couple hours later. He looked beside him and Harry was still sitting on the bed next to him. The music on the main menu of the DVD was playing over and over. 

“You’re still here?” Niall said groggily, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” Harry said quietly. “How are you feeling?”

Niall sighed and thought for a moment. “Not too bad I suppose. Knee hurts a little, but other than that, I think I’m good.”

Niall was getting tired of the music repeating and wondered how Harry hadn’t gone insane listening to it for however long he was asleep for after the movie ended. To be honest, he didn’t expect Harry to still be there.

“I thought you would’ve left by now,” Niall said clicking off the TV with the remote.

“Why’s that?” Harry’s tone was light and bubbly like it usually was and Niall appreciated that.

“I dunno. You’re always popping off out of here; I figured you had better things to do than to sit here while I sleep.” Niall didn’t want to put Harry on the spot, but he did often wonder why Harry was still there if things were getting back to normal with both himself and Liam.

“I have to check in with my superiors every once in a while. See if there are new orders and such,” Harry said looking at Niall.

“New orders?”

“Like the one that brought me down to earth, to you,” Harry said nonchalantly.

Niall thought about it for a minute. He was getting tired of being in bed already and just want to get up and walk around the house. He thought about Liam and how much Liam did for him that he could never repay him for even if he tired. Then he thought about Harry. How Harry can here and things started to change. 

“So, does that mean you’ll leave us one day?” Niall said quietly. He couldn’t look at Harry.

Harry looked down at his hands. “This may sound quite selfish, but…I hope not. I like it here. I like you and Liam. Heaven isn’t all humans think it is, not for angels anyway. They’re not very friendly up there.”

Niall let out a small chuckle. He knew how Harry felt about violence and he was steadfast in the idea of being kind. Niall wondered briefly whether that would get Harry killed one day, but he didn’t want to think about that.

“For all the trouble I’ve caused,” Niall started to say. “I thought you wouldn’t want to stay.”

“Don’t say that, Niall,” Harry said slowly. “I’m not just here because you were in trouble. I’m still here because to be quite honest with you, I’ve been lying about you.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?” Niall said snapping his head over to look at Harry.

Harry wouldn’t look up at him. “I have to check in in heaven about the progress that you are making, and I’ve been telling them that you need for time, because I don’t want to leave you and I don’t want to go back there. I mean, it’s not all lies, I really am helping you still,” Harry said looking up at Niall. “Just not in the way they think.”

Niall didn’t say anything right away. He picked absentmindedly at the edge of his blanket while he thought things over. He could feel the anticipation of his words radiating off Harry. 

“I don’t want you to leave either.”

 

Liam was gone for five days, and Niall and Harry had watched every Marvel movie Niall owned. Liam texted them a few times checking in with how things were going and letting them know he was okay. He called on the second day, and Niall had to hand the phone over to Harry because he couldn’t stop laughing about something, but Harry wasn’t much better, so Liam just got an earful of giggles. In between the laughter, Liam sussed it out to something involving Niall needing to go to the bathroom for the first time and Harry almost falling backwards into the bathtub. 

Liam didn’t say anything about the case, but mentioned something about a vengeful spirit. He missed Niall, but he was happy that Niall and Harry seemed to be getting along. He imagined something more along the lines of getting a call from Harry who locked himself in the bathroom and being able to hear Niall swearing through the door and Liam was very glad that was not the case here.

He came home around dinnertime on the fifth day and Niall was down on the couch while Harry was in the kitchen waiting for the microwave to finish. Liam didn’t know what he was going to be more impressed with, the fact that Harry learned how to use the microwave or the story behind getting Niall downstairs to the couch.

“Oh, good!” Harry beamed seeing Liam enter the house. “Just in time!”

“Hey! Hey! Liam! You’re back!” Niall craned his neck so he could see over the back of the couch. 

Liam smiled and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. “I don’t know what I’m more surprised by. That fact that Harry’s using the microwave or that the house is still in one piece.”

“Very funny,” Niall mocked, sitting up and throwing an arm over the back of the couch.

“So, what are you even making, Harry?” Liam said moving into the kitchen.

“Boxed mashed potatoes and…” Harry picked up the half empty freezer bag. “And California blend vegetables.” 

“No meat?” Liam questioned.

“That’s what I said!” Niall yelled from the living room.

“You told me I couldn’t cook meat in the microwave!” Harry yelled back at Niall.

“That’s because you can’t!” Niall yelled.

Liam could tell just by Niall’s voice that he was smiling in the other room.

“Do you see what you left me here with?” Harry said looking at Liam.

“I heard that!” Niall shouted.

Liam giggled. “How ‘bout I make the meat? I think there is some chicken in the freezer, I’ll just pop it in the microwave to—”

“But you can’t put meat in the microwave,” Harry repeated looking at Liam with a worried expression.

Liam laughed and shook his head. “You can defrost it in the microwave, Harry. You just can’t cook it in the microwave. Alright?” Liam put a hand on Harry’s shoulder and looked at him until Harry nodded his head in understanding. “Okay. Let’s finish making dinner.”

“Finally!” Niall called from the couch in relief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for hanging in there with me. The next chapter introduces Louis' character, which I am really excited about and Niall gets back in the game! By the way, the 31 chapters is tentative at this point, but it might me more. The first 13 chapters are for sure but I might move stuff around with the others and add more chapters near the end. Hope you enjoyed this new chapter! Let me know what you think!


	6. When I’m Fat and Old and My Kids Think I’m a Joke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall, Liam, and Harry take on a really weird case. Laying eggs. Deathly boomerangs. Snake habitats. Shit's just weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I want to apologize for how utterly late this chapter is. I knew when I started this fic that I was going to have a couple weeks here and there that I wasn't going to be able to post on time because of school and my anxiety kicking my ass. This chapter also ended up being over 11,000 words, so it's super long compared to the others. I was excited to introduce Louis' character in this one, so let me know what you think of him!! Again, I'm super-duper sorry about the wait

**February 13, 2014**

Niall wobbled his way down the stairs with Harry in front of him keeping a hand hovering in front of Niall’s chest just in case he tripped.  Niall had told Harry that he was fine and could do it without Harry babysitting him, but Harry insisted.  The angel was still occasionally taking the pain out of Niall’s knee so Niall was up and about the house with a little more ease.

Niall didn’t really mind all that much that Harry was always trying to help him.  He and Liam were getting used to having Harry around.  They even gave him his own room in the house, next to Niall’s even though Harry didn’t sleep.  He mostly used it for the closet space.  Niall and Liam couldn’t understand why an angel needed so many pairs of ankle boots and skinny jeans, but Harry said that clothes were one of the best parts of being on earth and was utterly fascinated by the idea of putting together outfits. 

Unlike Harry, Niall had been wearing the same two pairs of sweatpants and two pairs of shorts for the past month.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs Harry followed after Niall to the study where Liam had been all morning.  When they looked in, they saw Liam sitting at the desk with the two foldout tables full of open books.  He had his hands glued to the sides of his head as he stared down at the book in front of him.

“You about ready to go?” Niall asked.

Liam’s head popped up and he turned around with a confused look on his face.  “Go where?” he said as his eyebrows knitted together.

“It’s Friday, Liam.  I’ve got physical therapy,” Niall said looking for a trace of recognition in Liam’s face.

Liam’s eyes, widened, “Oh my god, Niall.  I completely forgot.  Dan and Sandy are hunting something up in Boston and they can’t figure out what it is, so they called me to see if _I_ could figure it out.”

“What if you just drop me off and come back would that help?  That gives you a couple hours to work instead of having to stay there with me…” Niall proposed.

“No, it’s alright. Really.  I don’t want to leave you there by yourself.  Plus, they said it was good to have someone else there.” Liam said quickly.

Harry stood there looking at Liam then glanced at Niall.  “What if I go with him?  You could just drop us off and I could stay with Niall.”

Liam looked over at Harry, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Niall said clapping a hand on Harry’s shoulder.  “It’ll be fine.  It’s not like it’s me first time going anyway and you’ve got lives to help save.” Niall gave Liam a reassuring smile.

“Alright, suppose it’s not that big of a deal.  You’ll text me when you’re done though, yeah?” Liam said getting to his feet.

“Course,” Niall said swiftly.  Liam had been in a bit over his head lately.  Niall felt like he was stretching Liam thin with all of his problems, but Liam was always the concerned one.  He was very protective of Niall and always put others above himself.  Liam cared a lot and it wore him down.

 

 

Liam dropped Niall and Harry off at the rehab center.  “Hey, Harry,” he called out. 

Harry bent over so he could see Liam through the open passenger’s side window.

“Look out for him, alright?” Liam said.  His eyebrows furrowed with a slight worried expression.

“Of course, Liam,” Harry said with a reassuring smile.

Liam smiled back at him and some of the worry left his face. 

Harry stepped away from the car as Liam drove off and Harry went to join Niall where he stood waiting at the front entrance.

“Everything okay?” Niall asked as Harry held the door open for him.

“Yep!” Harry said brightly following Niall into the building.

Niall went up to the receptionist to check in.  When the blond haired woman behind the desk looked up and saw Niall, her face lit up.  “Niall,” she said brightly.  “Thought when you didn’t show up on time that you’d left us for another center.”  She looked from Niall to Harry and her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.  “Well, you’re definitely not Liam…” she smiled.

“Oh, right,” Niall said remembering that Harry was next to him.  “Li had a bit of work to do so I had to find a replacement for the day.  This is Harry.”

“Pleasure to meet you Harry,” she said with a wide grin as Harry smiled back at her.  She put a clipboard up on the counter in front of them.  “And you two gentleman will sign in please, I’ll let Mark know you’re here.” 

Niall took the pen and scribbled his name down then pushed the clipboard over to Harry who jotted something down quickly and Niall handed the clipboard back to the receptionist.

The two boys turned to walk down the hallway when the receptionist called after them.  “Oh, I need first and last names on here.”

Harry followed Niall back to the counter, “What was that?”

“I need first and last names. You’re good, but you’re friend’s just says ‘Harry’.  Can have your last name then, sweetheart,” she said looking at Harry.

Harry’s eyes widened slightly and he looked at Niall, who looked slightly panicked. “Um…” Niall said looking around.  He spotted the stack of magazines sitting to the side of the counter.  In-Style Magazine, he read.  “Uh, Styles!” Niall said a bit too loudly.  “Styles, is his last name.  Harry Styles. Sorry about that, I just woke up only about an hour ago, so me brain’s still a little foggy,” Niall said trying to cover the lie.  He looked at Harry, who just simply nodded in agreement.

“Is that Styles with an ‘i’ or a ‘y’?” she asked looking at the two boys.

“A ‘y’…S-T-Y-L-E-S,” Niall spelled out.  

“Alrighty, then. You boys are good to go,” she said with a smile.

Harry walked next to Niall as they walked down the hallway.

“Remind me when we get back to the house, that we really need to make you a fake ID,” Niall said quietly.

Harry just nodded, not really knowing what Niall was talking about, but made a mental note to remind him later. 

Niall walked into the training room, where he could see his burly, dark haired physio, Mark, coming in through another door.

Mark smiled and made his way over to Niall from the other side of the room. 

“What are we doin’ today, Mark?” Niall said brightly when Mark was only a few yards away.

“Some stretches, maybe even get you on the stationary bike for a while, try and do a bit of walking.  I talked with the doc upstairs about your last scans and he said that you’re healing quite nicely.  Also, said that if you have time today he wants to squeeze you in for another scan today, once we’re done here.”

Niall glanced over at Harry then back at Mark, “Yeah, we’ve got plenty of time.  Liam’s a bit busy today, so it’ll give him a little extra time before he’s got to pick us up.  This is Harry, by the way,” Niall said gesturing toward Harry.

Mark stuck out his hand and Harry shook it with minimal awkwardness.  Niall had taught him about handshakes.  “Good to meet you, Harry.”

Niall nudged Harry when he didn’t say anything at first. 

“Oh, right.  Nice to meet you too,” Harry said quickly.

Niall stood there watching the exchange.  “Sorry about him.  Harry doesn’t get out much,” Niall said releasing his hand from his crutch and slapping Harry playfully on the shoulder.

Mark showed Harry how to help Niall stretch and with very minimal giggle from Niall every time Harry asked Mark a weird question or said something weird about problems with using the microwave and how hard it is to separate laundry loads, when they got to talking during the session.

Niall wasn’t feeling much pain in his knee anymore, well, not as much as he used to and Mark said that was a good thing.  Niall was tired of using his crutches and doing physical therapy was a good way to get off them for a bit even if he was always dead tired afterward.

After the session was over, Niall sat on the bench in the training room putting his knee brace back on while Harry sat quietly next to him. 

“I should probably text Liam and say that we’re gonna be a bit late since I have to get that scan upstairs,” Niall said absently. He pulled out his phone and typed out a quick text to Liam, who replied with “ok. Let me know when you’re done”.

They took the elevator to the second floor, where they met up with the lab technician to get the scans done.

 He didn’t really see it as much of a concern until he said Doctor Jacobs walk in after the scans were done.  He was a tall, lean man with golden blond hair slicked to the side and a clean-shaven face.  It felt weird getting a medical opinion about something from some who didn’t look much older than Niall was, but Niall liked Doctor Jacobs, since he was one of the few people that didn’t talk to him like he was a child.

Niall pulled his sweatshirt back on, Harry helped him to his feet, and they went into the little room where the lab tech and Doctor Jacobs were standing.

“Is something wrong?” Niall asked looking at the two men curiously.

Doctor Jacobs had his arms crossed over his chest, “Well, actually, it’s quite the opposite, Mr. Horan.  An initial look at your scans shows that your knee is healing at an accelerated rate.”

“What?”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.  I mean just the difference in two weeks is remarkable,” the doctor carried on.

“So, what does that mean exactly?” Niall questioned hoping for some even better news.

“Well, I’d have to take a closer look at these, but I think our initial timeframe of four months is going to be cut down quite a bit.” Doctor Jacobs faced Niall.  “You are one lucky man, Mr. Horan.  You must have some angel watching over you, because, very rarely, do we see anything quite like this.” Doctor Jacobs continued talking while Harry and Niall exchanged a small glance and smile to one another.  “I’ll give you a call when I get a better look at these and give you a better time estimate on how long you’re looking at.”

“Sounds good!” Niall said shaking the doctor’s hand.  “And thank you so much! I’m so tired of these damn crutches, like you wouldn’t believe.”

 

Niall and Harry sat in the front lobby waiting for Liam.

“Did you do this?” Niall ask quietly.

“Did I do what?” Harry said looking over at Niall who was wringing his hands together.

“What they said about my knee…is it possible that whatever you were doing when you took the pain away, also made it heal faster?” Niall looked sideways at Harry.

The angel sat there contemplating the idea for a little while before answering.  “I suppose it’s possible, but I never thought I had that sort of power, you know?”

“Well, whether you did or you didn’t, thank you,” Niall said patting Harry on the knee.

“Always,” Harry said in response.  The two boys looked at each other and started laughing. 

Niall saw Liam pull up outside in the Chevelle.  “Time to go, Hazza,” Niall said hoisting himself to his feet and heading outside to the car.

“Hazza?” Harry questioned.

“Huh?” Niall turned to look at Harry.  

“You called me _Hazza_?” Harry repeated.

Niall chuckled, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

 

 

Doctor called the next day and told Niall that he only needed one more week of crutches and two more of physical therapy.

Niall didn’t remember much about what happened after the call ended, but he grabbed Liam and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek and Harry stood there looking confused about why Niall was so excited. “Two more weeks! Get it!” Niall yelled maneuvering himself down the hallway laughing loudly, making the sound echo through the house.

“Well, he seems happy,” Harry stated looking over at Liam.

“Just a tad,” Liam said with a smile, watching as Niall disappeared down the hallway. 

“Best Valentine’s Day ever!” Niall yelled from the kitchen.

 

 

Two weeks later, Niall burst through the front door of the house, a wide grin, and a brightness in his eyes.  “I, Niall James Horan, am a free man!”

Liam looked up from the dishes, “I take it you’re last appointment went well?”

“Indeed it did, Li-Li,” Niall said brightly as he walked into the kitchen and hopped up onto one of the stools at the counter. 

“But you still have the brace on?” Liam wondered, seeing the black knee brace sticking out from the hem of Niall’s shorts.

“Yeah, well, that’s more of a precaution.  Doc says I gotta be careful playing sports and whatnot, but as long as I keep with me stretches and whatnot it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”  Niall picked up an apple out of the bowl on the counter and took a bite.  “And on that note, please tell me that you have a case for us.”

“You really think that’s a good idea?” Liam said putting a bowl on the drying rack.

“Liam, I’ve been in a hospital twice, on crutches since September, an angel has literally started living with us, I got so bored that I found a secret tunnel in our basement…I need to get out of this damn house and feel useful again. So, what do we got on the monster front?” Niall said staring at Liam.

Liam sighed and dried his hands off, then propped himself up on the counter staring back at Niall.  “Well, I do have something, but it’s a bit weird.”

“The weirder the better.  Lay it on me,” Niall said. 

Harry walked into the kitchen and his face lit up after seeing that Niall was home. “You’re back!” Harry said brightly.

Niall acknowledged Harry then turned back to Liam, “Come on, Li. Lay it on me. I’m ready.”

“What are we laying on who?” Harry said confused as he took a seat next to Niall at the counter.

The two boys ignored Harry and just stared at each other, until Liam finally broke. “Fine, alright. There have been some weird reports coming out of a cluster of towns in the middle of Virginia.  All sorts of crazy stuff, like some guy got decapitated by a boomerang, a woman fell off a balcony and landed vertically so her feet were sticking straight up in the air, another twenty or so people have been admitted into psychiatric hospitals for all sorts of crazy stuff, seeing dinosaurs, King-Kong, and one guy even thought President Obama was stalking him…like I said, it’s been weird.”

“That sounds like a right cluster-fuck of shit,” Niall said his face screwed up in the oddness of it all.  “I say we go,” Niall said bluntly, hopping off the stool and heading upstairs to pack.

Harry stared after Niall then swung his head around to look at Liam.  “What’s happening?”

“I guess we are going on a hunt…wanna come?” Liam said cocking his head to the side.

“Sure? I guess,” Harry said hesitantly.  He still wasn’t sure what was going on since this whole thing was very out of routine for them.

“Alright, you might need a suit though.  Something simple, nothing too fancy, all right?  Niall and I got a few IDs for you to use just in case this sort of thing came up.”  Liam looked up at Harry, who had that biggest smile on his face making his dimples prominent. “What? Why are you smiling like that?”

“You remembered me,” Harry said still smiling like a doofus.  “You and Niall remembered me.”

Liam looked at Harry confused.  “Of course we remembered you, mate. Why would you think otherwise?”

Harry’s smile faded and he looked at the floor.  When he spoke, it was so quiet at first that Liam couldn’t quite hear him.  “Back home…in Heaven. They always forgot about me.  No one really cared enough to remember me, so I was always left by myself.”

Liam walked around the counter and put a hand on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry looked up at Liam with red eyes.  Liam didn’t know that angels could cry.

Liam gave a warm smile.  “This is your home now.  It’s your home for as long as you want to stay.  We have no plans of forgetting you or leaving you behind, Harry.  So you better get used to having us around.” Liam smiled even bigger, ruffled Harry’s hair, and threw his arm over Harry’s narrow shoulder’s leading him upstairs so they could get packed for the trip.

Harry went into his room while Liam poked his head in Niall’s room.

Niall was standing by his bed with his suitcase out in front of him.  He wasn’t moving at all and it looked like he was just staring at the wall.

“Wheels up in a half hour, Nialler,” Liam said and he watched as Niall’s head nodded in understanding.

Liam backed slowly way from the room, his face creased in confusion as he turned to see Harry standing in front of him holding up a couple of suit combinations.  “What about these?”

One suit was plain black, but the shirt he had paired with it was black with white hearts on it and the other was a similar black suit with a blackish-red shear shirt paired with it.

“Well, you’re on the right track with the black suit part of it, but those shirts are a little too fancy, Harry.  Do you have anything a bit more plain? Like a white or blue shirt, maybe?” Liam said examining the choices.

Harry looked at Liam in confusion. 

Liam gave up.  “How about I help you, yeah?” Liam said ushering Harry back into his room.  Liam stopped in front of Harry’s closet.  “Jeez, Harry.  Where did you even get all these clothes?”  Liam ran his fingers over the soft fabrics of the contents of Harry’s full closet.  “How did you even pay for all this?”

“Pay?” Harry said looking over Liam’s shoulder in to his closet.

Liam laughed in realization.  “Harry, did you steal this stuff?” Liam asked looking back at Harry.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. _He picked that up from Niall_ , Liam thought. 

“You know stealing is a sin, Harry,” Liam said jokingly, but Harry’s face fell immediately at the idea of it.  Liam, noticing the concern flooding Harry’s face.  “Harry, it’s fine,” he said reassuringly.  “Niall and I do it all the time.  Though, not usually this fancier stuff, but still…this job doesn’t exactly pay that well or at all…” Liam laughed and Harry’s face smoothed out, leaving Liam to stare back at the most innocent face he’d ever scene. 

Liam looked back into the closet and pulled out a white, faintly pinstriped shirt and a light blue one.  “Here these will work.  Little less out there.”  He handed the shirts to Harry, who looked the shirts over and then smiled in acceptance. 

Liam dug out another bag for Harry to use and then started across the hallway toward his own room only having about fifteen minutes to pack.

Niall popped his head out from his room.  “What time do you want to leave?” he asked, his hand resting on the doorframe.

Liam stopped and turned to look at Niall.  “I already told you when we were leaving.”

Niall’s head cocked to the side, “No, you didn’t?”

“Yeah, I did.  I told you we were gonna leave in a half an hour fifteen minutes ago. You even nodded.”

Niall frowned then shrugged his shoulders.  _Yeah, Harry definitely got that from Niall._ “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it then,” Niall said and ducked back into his room to finish packing.

Liam shook his head and walked to his room.

 

 

Liam drove the whole six and a half hours to Roanoke, Virginia, where the last report about a woman who was hospitalized after she kept “producing” chicken eggs.  Liam and Niall weren’t really sure what that entailed and both did and didn’t want to find out. 

They pulled into the La-Zzzzzz Traveler’s motel and Niall trotted off to the front desk to get them a room for a few days at least.  He came back to the car, room keys in hand.  “I only got two queens, since Harry doesn’t actually sleep,” he said handing one of the room keys to Liam.

“Yeah, I didn’t think of that until you left,” Liam said putting the key in his pocket.  “Suppose we’re going to start some rumors if anyone notices that there are three of us,” Liam laughed as he opened the truck of Niall’s car so they could get their bags.

They settled into the room and while Liam took a shower, Harry helped Niall with some of his stretches since his knee was aching a bit from sitting in the car for so long scrunched up in the passenger’s seat. 

Niall laid on his back on the floor at the foot of his bed as Harry gently brought Niall’s leg all the way up bending it up towards Niall’s chest stretching out the back of his leg.  Liam came out of the bathroom, his hair wet with only a pair of athletic shorts on.

Liam looked at the odd spectacle in front of him.  “Now that is how rumors get started, lads,” Liam chuckled.

“Eat me,” Niall spat back as Harry lowered Niall’s leg back to the floor and Niall sat up.

“Still not helping the situation, Niall,” Liam giggled.

Niall took off one of his trainers and quickly threw it at Liam, who ducked out of the way just in time.

“You’re aim needs to be a little straighter than that if you want to hit me, Nialler,” Liam said picking out fresh clothes from his suitcase, when he said Niall going to take off his other shoe, Liam grabbed his stuff and ran into the bathroom, with a loud _thunk_ , Niall’s shoe hit just as the door slammed shut.

Niall leaned against the end of the bed, looking up at Harry who was still standing next to him.  “Want to help me up, Harold?” Niall said with wide eyes.

Harry nodded and took Niall’s hands and lifted him easily off the motel room floor.

Liam came out of the bathroom, peeking around the corner first to make sure Niall wasn’t going to throw anything else at him.  “So, what do you want to do for dinner?” Liam said walking out into the main room once he realized it was safe.

“Saw a diner not too far from here,” Niall said.  “I’m starving.”

“Sounds good to me,” Liam said putting his heavy boots back on.

 

They grabbed an open booth in the corner of the diner.  Niall and Harry sat on the same side facing the front door, while Liam sat across from them. 

“So, where are we supposed to even start with this case?” Niall said. 

A waiter came over and placed menus in front of each of them.  He was a little shorter and had shaggy brown hair, with a lollipop stick jutting out of his mouth.  “My name’s Tom and I’ll be you’re waiter this evening.  Can I get you all something to drink?”

“Oh uh… I think we’ll just take three waters, please,” Liam said quickly. 

“All right.  Three waters, then,” the waiter said as he gave them a cheap smile and wandered off behind the counter.

“I can order me own drinks, Liam,” Niall said jokingly. “What was that about?”

“I don’t know, I just didn’t want Harry to get confused and then we’d just end up looking all sketchy and weird,” Liam replied.

Niall pondered it for a moment, while Harry sat next to him looking confusingly at his menu.  “I don’t understand what this is…” Harry said holding the menu awkwardly looking from Liam to Niall.

Niall nodded.  “Yeah, I see what you mean,” Niall said looking at Liam then reached his hand over and took the menu from Harry.  “Don’t worry about it, Hazza.”

Harry sat back in his seat frowning.

Their waiter, Tom, came over and put three glasses of water and three straws on the table in front of them.  “Have you decided on what you’d like or would you like another minute?”

“Uh, I’ll have the burger and chips…I mean fries,” Niall corrected himself quickly.

Tom looked at Liam next.

“I’ll have the same,” Liam said simply as he closed his menu.

“And you?” Tom said looking at Harry.

“Uh, nothing for him thanks,” Niall said quickly as he placed all the menus in a stack and handed them over to the waiter.

“Alright, let me know if you change your mind,” he said giving another fake smile as he left to put in their order.

Niall sighed and slid down in his seat.  “We really need to work on that.”

“Now, we look like a right couple of freaks,” Liam said. 

“Probably think we kidnapped Harry or something,” Niall joked.  “So, how are we going to find this thing? I mean we don’t have much to go on lore-wise, it’s just been a bunch of weird shit.”

Liam slid a straw into his drink and took a sip. “I suppose we start with the last victim.  If that doesn’t get us anywhere, we can always make a stop by the crazy-house and talk to some of the victims that are there.”

Niall nodded.  “There has to be some connection among them.  And once we figure that out, we’ll have a better chance of figuring out what the hell is doing this.”

 

 

Liam woke up early the next morning and found Harry sitting quietly on the floor at the foot of Niall’s bed.  “Have you been there all night?” Liam asked him quietly.

Harry nodded innocently.

Liam grabbed a fresh pair of boxers and went into the bathroom to take a shower.  When he came back out shirtless with wet hair, Harry hadn’t moved and Niall was still sleeping.

Liam went over to the bed and shook Niall’s leg.  “Come on, Nialler.  Time to get up.”

Niall groaned and shifted under the blankets.

“Come on, mate.  We have to suit up today.  Look all professional and not like we just rolled out of bed.  Come on.”  He shook Niall some more. 

Liam went to his suitcase and got his grey trousers and white, long-sleeved button down. 

Niall crawled out of his bed and shuffled over to the bathroom. 

Liam heard the shower start up right away and he peered over at Harry.  “Come on.  You too.  Gonna have to play dress up today.”

“You want me to go with you?” Harry questioned.

“Yeah, I want you to go, Harry.  I have no idea what this thing we are hunting is and if you catch something that we don’t, we might figure this thing out a little faster.”  Liam stepped into his trousers and putted them up his legs.  Noticing the worried look on Harry’s face, Liam looked at him.  “You don’t have to say anything, alright?  All you have to do is stand there and listen.  It’s gonna be fine,” Liam said giving a reassuring smile. 

Harry smiled back and popped up off the floor. 

 

 

They were walking down the hallway of the hospital and Niall was tugging at the navy blue patterned tie around his neck.  “Liam, not to be a downer or anything,” he said quietly, “but what kind of FBI agent has bleach blond hair?”

“I don’t know Niall, if they ask just tell them you’re from California or something,” Liam said through clenched teeth.

Niall rolled his eyes and continued following Liam down the hallway with Harry not far behind him. 

They stepped into the hospital room and a larger woman with brownish-red frizzed hair lay in the bed.  She looked tired and pale, but the boys figured that was good considering her condition with the whole egg thing.

Liam knocked on the doorframe and she looked up at them.  “Mary Craig? Hi, I’m Agent Lane, this is my partner, Agent Laken, and our associate Agent Edwards, FBI,” Liam said and both he and Niall flashed their fake FBI badges.  “Would you mind if we asked you a few questions?”

Mary nodded.  “Sure, though I don’t know what this has to do with the FBI.”

“Well, we are investigating a few similar cases and if you can shed any light on this case, it would be very helpful.”

“I’ll try to help in any way I can,” she said sitting up properly.

Niall stepped forward a bit before he spoke.  “Can you tell us what you did earlier that day prior to the uh…” He waved his hands vaguely.

“Well,” she started.  “I got breakfast at the diner, went to work at the lawyer’s office, where I’m a secretary, then I noticed I wasn’t feeling well so I went home early, and that’s when _it_ happened.”

“Did you see, hear, or smell anything out of place?” Liam interjected.

“Not that I recall, but maybe?” she said questioning herself. 

Niall shifted on his feet and Liam wondered if his knee was bothering him. 

Niall ignored Liam’s looks of concern and tried to stay focused on Mary.  “Did you know any of the other victims?”

“I recognized a few of them just from being out and about town, but I didn’t know any of them personally.”

“Alright,” Liam said stepping toward her.  “I think that’s all the questions we have for now.  But if you remember anything else, feel free to give us a call,” Liam said handing her a fake card with his number on it.

Liam and Niall exited the room followed by Harry. 

“Well, that wasn’t very helpful,” Liam said loosening his tie. 

“What eggs-actly do we do next? What’s going to _crack_ this case open?” Niall giggled.

Liam turned to look at him and Niall’s face was turning pink from trying to contain his laughter.  “How long have you been sitting on those?” Liam asked straight-faced.

“Long enough for them to hatch,” Niall chuckled.

Liam rolled his eyes as Harry smiled behind them.  He didn’t really understand what was so funny, but he couldn’t help but smile any time Niall laughed.

 

 

Niall and Harry slid into the corner booth at the diner as they watched Liam through the window talking to the sheriff on the phone.

Niall ditched his suit jacket and his tie and sat with his arm draped across the back of the seat with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.  Harry was still in his full suit, but Niall had loosened his tie for him and he sat slumped in his seat staring at the table in front of him. 

The waiter from the day before, Tom, was waiting on them and already getting their order. 

The bell above the door rang out and Liam made his way over to the two boys, sliding in across from them.

“So, what did the sheriff say?” Niall said removing his arm from the back of the seat and leaning forward.

“He said we have to stop by the station if we want copies of the other victims’ statements,” Liam said just as Tom came over and put their food in front of them and walked off after asking if they needed anything else.

“Do you want to just take the car and go over there real quick and Harry and me can head back to the motel and start doing some research.  See if we can at least eliminate a few possibilities?” Niall said biting off the end of a French fry.

“You want to walk all the way back to the motel with your knee?” Liam questioned.

Niall looked up at him with a slightly annoyed look on his face.  “I’ll be fine, Liam.  It’s not even that far and I could use the exercise.”

Niall looked over at Harry who was now staring over at the counter.  Niall and Liam followed his gaze.

“Harry? What the hell are you staring at?” Niall said leaning into Harry.

Harry looked down at his lap then leaned back in his seat.  “Can we go yet?”

“We’ve just started eating, Haz,” Niall said looking over at Harry.  “Is something up?”

Harry didn’t answer and just kept looking down with his brows knitted together in contemplation.

Liam shrugged and the two boys went back to eating.

 

They finished eating and Liam left for the sheriff’s station as Niall went up to the counter to pay for their meal.  Niall fumbled around opening his wallet and his phone started going off just as he handed the money over to Tom behind the counter.

Niall looked at his phone and saw Sandy’s name light up on the screen.  Niall took the call, putting the phone to his ear.  “Sandy? What’s up man? You okay?”  Niall listened intently as Tom handed Niall back his change.  Niall gave a quick nod and smiled at Tom.  “Wait,” he said into the phone as he turned away from the counter.  “What do you mean demons are headed our way?  What the hell gives you that idea?”  Niall listened carefully as the bell rang out as he went outside followed by a quiet Harry.  “Yeah, we’ll look into it. Thanks for the heads up.  Yeah, take care of yourself, Sandy. I’ll talk to you later.” 

Niall hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket.

“What’s happening?” Harry said catching up with Niall who was practically speed walking.

“Sandy and the boys were tracking some demons when they split off and he said that it looked like they were head right toward us.” Niall crossed the street and pulled his phone back out.

“Do you think it has something to do with the case?” Harry said quickly.

“I dunno. Maybe.  Or they’re here for another reason, which means that we are smackdab in the middle of some supernatural shit storm.” Niall put the phone to his ear.  “Liam, we’ve got another problem…”

 

 

 

Liam ran his hands over his face after Niall explained what was going on.  “So, what you’re telling me is that on top of whatever weird shit is going on here, we also have demons to deal with?” Liam said facing Niall with his hands on his hips.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Niall said bluntly. 

“Great.”  Liam threw his hand up in the air.  “So, what’s our plan?”

“Our plan is to watch our asses while we finish this case and deal with the demons later.”

Harry’s head shot up.  “You really think that’s a good idea?”

Niall turned to look at him.  The room was quiet and they could hear cars passing by the motel.  Niall was starting to sweat in his button down shirt.   He kept pulling at the material away from his chest allowing cool air to rush down his torso.  “I don’t think we have much of a choice. We know just as much about the demons as we do whatever we’re hunting here, so if either you have a better idea I’m open to suggestions, but this is the only plan I’ve got.”  Niall shifted uncomfortably on his feet and he could feel the slight twinge in his knee. 

 

The boys changed out of their suits and back into jeans and t-shirts as they spread out in the motel room to go over the victim statements that Liam got from the sheriff. 

Niall sat on the floor in front of his bed with his stack of statements.  “Is anyone else seeing the pattern of all of these people living the most boring mundane lives?”

Liam shifted on his bed where he sat with one leg hanging over the side and a piece of paper in his hand.  “Yeah, I kinda noticed that as well, to be honest.”

Niall sighed and fell back against the bed.  “There’s got to be something.”

“Well, maybe that is something,” Harry lifted his head from where it rested on his hand.  He was sitting at the small circular table by the front windows.

“What are you on about?” Liam said looking at Harry.

“You said that they were all boring, so maybe that’s why they were targeted,” Harry said with a shrug.  The heat kicked on again as the two other boys thought it over. 

Niall was barely holding it together, in his jeans and light, white t-shirt.  He couldn’t figure out why the other two, or at least Liam, hadn’t said anything about how hot it was in the room.  Niall didn’t even notice that the other two were looking at him.

“You okay there, Nialler?” Liam said leaning forward so he could see Niall.

“I’m fine. It’s just boiling hot in here,” Niall said.

Liam looked at him curiously.

“What?”

“Niall, I was just going to ask if you wanted me to turn the heat up.  I was starting to get cold.”

Niall looked from Liam to Harry then at the floor.  “I uh, I think I’m gonna take a shower,” Niall said as he organized the papers around him and got up off the floor.

He disappeared into the bathroom.  He could feel Liam and Harry’s eyes on him as he closed and locked the door behind him.  He slipped off his jeans and his shirt then looked in the mirror.  His cheeks were rose colored and he could see the red run down across his chest over the raised scars that traveled back up his neck.

He turned on the water and got in right away, letting the cold water run over his hot skin.  Niall didn’t know what was wrong with him.  Maybe he was sick. Maybe it was something else.  His knee ached and despite it being a motel bathroom, he needed to sit down.  He put his head in between his knees and let the water pour over him.  He didn’t know how long he was sitting like that for, but then he heard a knock at the bathroom door.

“Niall?”

He could hear the muffled sound of Harry’s voice.

“Are you alright?”

Niall didn’t answer.  He just stayed where he was on the tub floor.  He could hear the door squeak open.

“Niall?” Harry’s voice came through clearer this time.

Niall lifted his head. “What’s up, Harry?”

“Just wanted to check and make sure you were okay,” Harry said sincerely. 

“I’m fine, Haz,” Niall tried to sound like he meant it. 

“Oh, okay…” Harry said quietly.

“Thanks, Harry,” Niall said gently.

“No, problem,” Harry replied and Niall could hear the door close and he knew he was alone again.

Niall felt like maybe the cold water was helping, because he felt a little less hot than he did before. 

He stood up, washed his hair and his body, letting the washcloth glide over the scars on his body.   He stepped out of the shower and looked himself over in the mirror. 

His blond hair was tangled around at the top of his head, but his complexion was once again his normal pale skin color.  He dried himself as best he could before he went back out into the main room with just a towel wrapped around his waist.

The room felt much cooler than it did before and Niall figured Liam turned off the heat while he was in the shower.

Niall made his way over to his suitcase, grabbed a fresh pair of boxers and a t-shirt.

“You feeling any better?” Liam said quietly from his bed.

Niall nodded and turned to look at Liam. “Dunno what it was, but I feel fine now.”

Liam gave a small smile.  “That’s good.”

Niall nodded again.  “I was kind of thinking that I’d just go to bed early.  And we can pick this up in the morning.” Niall walked back towards the bathroom.

“Yeah, of course.  My eyes were getting tired anyway,” Liam said putting down the paper he was holding.

Niall figured he was just saying that for his benefit since Liam didn’t look tired at all and it was only just after eight o’clock.

Harry looked curiously between the two boys from his seat at the little table.  Niall wondered if they talked about him while he was in the shower.  

After getting dressed, Niall crawled into his bed as Liam turned off the lights and went into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for bed.  Niall was already asleep by the time Liam came out and went to bed.  Though, he remembers the faints sounds of wind that meant that Harry had left them for the night.

 

 

Niall woke up the next morning, he didn’t feel like he got as much sleep as he should have, he thought that was partly because Liam was a bit restless during the night and Niall kept waking up to the sounds of Liam’s bed sheets moving and readjusting.

Niall slipped out of bed and went straight for the bathroom to relieve himself.  His eyes were having a hard time adjusting to the light as he stood in front of the mirror washing his hands.  His eyes flicked up to the mirror and he let out a loud screech when he saw his reflection in the mirror. 

Where his face normally looked smooth and his eyes bright, the image looking back at him was sagging and wrinkled.  He looked like an 80-year-old version of himself and he couldn’t help but start breathing heavily in between the strange in coherent noises he was making.  “Liam!” he yelled and the bathroom door burst open and Liam stood there with a panicked look on his face.

“What’s happened? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Liam says looking Niall up and down searching for an injury of some sort.

“Liam,” Niall said bluntly and loudly, looking Liam straight in the eyes like he was a complete nutter for not noticing.  “Look. At. My. Face.”

Liam’s brows knitted together and he just kept staring at Niall blankly and shrugged his shoulders.

“Liam! I’m old!” Niall said vociferously.

Liam’s face contorted even more. “Niall, what the hell are you on about? You’re only 20 years old and as scary as that may or may not be for you I don’t really think it involves screaming at 7 o’clock in the bloody morning?”

Niall looked at Liam incredulously.  “Don’t you see it? My face?” Niall said gesturing to himself.

“Well, your cheeks look a little red, but—”

Niall cut off Liam by grabbing him by his shoulders and yanking him in front of the mirror, pointing to himself.  “Now, do you see it?”

Liam’s jaw dropped as he looked at Niall’s reflection. His eyes drifted back over to Niall next to him.  “How in the—What the bloody hell? But you look fine in real life. What happened to you?”

“I dunno, Liam!” Niall shouted.  His hands went to his face and where Niall was ready to feel the divots and wrinkles on his face like he saw in the mirror, he felt the smooth, young skin of his 20 year old face.  “What is happening to me, Liam?”  Niall said as he looked over at Liam who was twisting uncomfortably and scratching at his back.  “Liam, are you okay?”

Liam looked up at Niall.  “What? I don’t know.  My back just itches.  I noticed it last night.”

“Liam, turn around.”

Liam turned so his back was facing Niall.

Niall carefully lifted Liam’s shirt, but he could see that there was a tattoo covering the entirety of Liam’s back, where there was never a tattoo before.  “Holy shit,” Niall muttered to himself. Niall examined the tattoo a little closer and noticed the snakes waving through a detailed green jungle background, but that’s when the snakes seemingly came alive and moved and repositioned themselves on Liam’s back.  Niall dropped Liam’s shirt and jumped back with a faint yelp leaving his lips, which made Liam jump as well and start patting frantically at his back.

“What is it?” He yelled and pulled his shirt up to see his back in the mirror.  Much like Niall, Liam yelled and dropped the hem of his shirt when he saw one of the snakes move on his back. 

The faint sound of wind echoed through the main room, Harry poked his head into the open bathroom, and both Liam and Niall stopped yelling and freaking out and just stared at Harry.

Niall’s head cocked to the side and he stared curiously at Harry.  “What’s wrong with you?” Niall said to him.

Harry’s head tilted to the side in confusion.  “What?”

“What’s wrong with you?” Liam said staring at Harry intently.

“Are you two alright?”

“No!” Liam yelled, making Harry jump. “We’re not alright! Niall looks like an old man in the mirror and I…I” Liam didn’t know how to explain it.

“Have a moving snake habitat on your back…” Niall finished.  Niall was looking at himself in the mirror again, squishing his cheeks with his fingers.  “I’m thinking whatever we were hunting in this town, may have figured out that we’re onto it…”

Liam itched at his back and Niall continued mushing his face with his fingers staring in the bathroom mirror.

“I don’t want to look like an old man,” Niall whined.

“And you think I want a tattoo, snake habitat on my back!” Liam yelled.

“We should probably figure this out then…” Niall said looking at the other two.

Harry rolled his eyes and rubbed his face with his hand.  “That’s actually why I’m back,” he said quietly.  “I think I’ve figured out what we’re dealing with.” He paused.

“Well, now rather than later would be best, Harry,” Niall joked.

“Remember when we were watching that movie?” Harry said walking back into the main room with Liam and Niall following him. 

“You’re going to have to be more specific than that, Hazza,” Niall said crossing his arms over his chest.

Harry sighed.  “It was the first one we watched together,” he said looking at Niall.  “We talked about Loki and I—”

“Holy shit,” Niall interrupted him.  “Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”

“I think it’s a trickster… but a really powerful one.  That’s what threw me off.  Tricksters are usually into smaller things, to be honest, they’re a bit petty, but this one, seems have a bit more power behind his tricks.  Especially, given the state you two are in.”

Niall and Liam looked at each other and then at Harry.

“So, how do we kill it?” Niall said flatly.

“I’m not actually sure you can,” Harry said.  “From what I understand, they are basically immortal, but I found a couple things that said a stake dipped in the blood of its victim might kill it.”

“Well, lucky for us, we’ve got two victims right here,” Niall said gesturing to him and Liam.

“Yeah, but you’re forgetting one thing.  This trickster probably knows what we are and knows what we look like and we don’t even know where to find him,” Liam said quietly.

Niall went over and picked up a few of the papers that he had been looking at the night before.  “I was actually thinking about that last night.  After Harry said that thing about how these people have being boring in common, I noticed something about the victims statements.” He handed the papers to Liam.  “Look there,” he pointed to a spot on each of the pages.  “Each one of the victims mentions something about stopping to get breakfast or going to the diner down the road.  I first I thought it was just a coincidence and that these people are just that lame, but it got me wondering, now that we know what we’re after here, whether or not this is how the trickster is finding its victims in the first place.”

“So, you think that’s where it’s held up?” Liam said handing the papers back to Niall.

“It’s worth a look.  Go over tonight after the place closes and have a look around. It could be nothing, so it’s not exactly a go in guns blazing situation.  More of a see if there’s anything hinky going on,” Niall finished.

“This is pretty thin, Niall.  I don’t know about this,” Liam said wearily.  “What exactly are we looking for anyway? I mean, I doubt the damn trickster is living there.”

“Sweets,” Harry interjected quietly.

Niall and Liam both looked at him confused. 

“Tricksters like sweets.  I don’t really understand why, but they do,” Harry said with a small shrug.

“Probably have a metabolism like Niall,” Liam laughed.

Niall looked offended at first, but then shrugged, “S’pose you’re right.”

 

 

Liam parked the car across the street from the diner.  It was almost 11:30pm, so they had a half an hour before it closed properly. 

Niall sat in the passenger’s seat picking at his nails.  “How’s the back?” Niall said swinging to head back to look at Liam.

“My back back or the back of the building?” Liam said.

“Your back back.”

“Itches.  Honestly, I’m tryin’ not to think about it,” Liam said leaning his elbow on the door as his fingers pulled at his bottom lip.

“Not to be a downer,” Harry piped up in the back.  “But what happens if the stakes don’t kill the trickster?  Is there some sort of plan B?”

Niall turned and glanced at Harry, “I was just planning on pushing you over, Harry, and making a run for it.”

“That’s not very nice, Niall,” Harry said slowly.

“M’ just jokin’, Harry, but I do plan on making a run for it if shit hits the fan,” Niall laughed.

Liam peered over at Niall, “I’m not sure we’ll even have the chance to run.  This thing seems pretty powerful.”

Niall sighed.  “You know, Liam, I bring Harry places to be Mr. Debbie-Downer, I feel like ‘m being attacked from all sides now.”

“I’m just being realistic, Niall.”

“We’ll be fine, Liam.  If the trickster wanted us dead, he could’ve killed us already.  It probably wants to see how long it can keep this up without gettin’ caught.”

“Is that supposed to be comforting?” Liam said looking over at Niall.

Niall shrugged.

“Great, there’s nothing I enjoy more than fighting something with the mentality of a serial killer,” Liam added slouching down in his seat as he look back out the window.

The diner was dark at this point and the boys watched as the last person left the parking lot.  They sat for a while just watching the building looking for anything out of place, when a dim light flickered on in the back, interior part of the diner.

Niall leaned back in his seat slightly.  “Just out of curiosity, Hazza…If you, I don’t know, get like shot or stabbed you’re not gonna die right?”

“I don’t think so, but there are certain blades that could kill me—”

“Nope, that’s it.  That’s all I needed to know.  Let’s do this thing,” Niall said opening the door and getting out of the car, closing it quietly behind him.

“Does he plan on shooting me or something,” Harry said looking at Liam.

“I honestly don’t know.  But I guess we’ll find out,” Liam said getting out of the car. 

Harry sighed and followed the other two who were already crossing the street.

Niall crouched down by the front door and pulled a lock pick set from his jacket pocket.

“Wouldn’t it be a better idea to see if there is a way in through the back?” Harry whispered.

“Back door has no windows to see in and the counter gives us good cover once we get inside,” Niall answered quietly as he worked at the lock.

“What about the bell?” Harry said urgently.

Niall froze and looked at Harry incredulously. “I know about the bell, Haz.  This isn’t exactly the first place I’ve broken into.  Only one side has the bell and it only rings when you open the door far enough.  Take a chill.  I’ve got this,” Niall finished, went back to the lock, and with a click, he opened the door slightly.  He reached his hand in through the crack, unlocked the second door from the inside, and pushed it open as he slowly closed the other again.

The three boys slipped in silently, staying low to the ground.  Niall slid down to the end with his back against the counter.  He pulled the maroon tipped wooden stake from his inner jacket pocket.  He signaled Liam to stay there while he checked it out and Liam put a hand on Harry’s shoulder to make sure he stayed put.

Niall slipped around the back of the counter and disappeared into the back while staying low to the floor.

Liam sat with his hand on Harry’s shoulder listening.  The room was dead silent.

“I don’t think the little lad’s comin’ back.” Liam heard the thick Yorkshire accents and turned. Sat behind him in the darkness of the diner was Tom, the waiter, with a lollipop sticking out of his mouth.

Liam jumped and squeezed Harry’s shoulder violently, making the angel jump and they both scrambled to their feet.  Liam instinctively when for the wooden stake from his jacket, but with a flick of his fingers, the small, blue-eyed brunette sent the stake sliding across the floor. Liam tugged Harry behind him protectively.

“You’re…” Liam choked out.

“Not quite a waiter? Yeah, I can see why this is a bit confusing for you,” the trickster said arrogantly.

Niall emerged from the back area, “Liam, I don’t think the tricksters— holy shit!” Niall said looking up to see the confrontation in front of him.  He quickly lifted the wooden stake and the trickster raised his hand.

“Niall, look out!” Liam yelled.

The trickster waved his hand and Niall flew back against the wall, the wooden stake flying from his grip. 

Liam took the opportunity and dove across the floor to retrieve his own stake, while the trickster was distracted.  Liam quickly got to his feet and lunged toward the trickster, embedding the stake under the trickster’s ribcage.  It paused and turned to Liam with a hardened look on its face.

“You really think a fuckin’ wooden stake can kill me? _Me_?” the trickster said as he grabbed the end on the stake and pulled it from his side.  “I really liked this shirt.  Now, you’ve gone and ruined it.”

Harry stepped forward and the trickster put his hand up.  “Oh, no no, angel-boy,” he said with a smirk.  “Yeah, that’s right.  I pegged you the moment you three idiots stepped foot in here. You’re not strong enough to go against me.”

Harry glared at the trickster with a hint of malice in his eyes.  “I’m not going to let you kill them.”

The trickster laughed.  “And there it is.”  He threw the wooden stake behind him and it disappears into the darkness of the diner. “Small-time angel with a big-time treat.  If I wanted you lot dead, it’d be all too easy.  Snap of my fingers and none of you exist anymore.”  He leaned over and grabbed Liam by the back of his shirt.  “I’m tired of you petty hunters thinking that you can kill gods.”

From behind them, the bell rang out above the door as five men entered the diner.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. What now?” the trickster turned with Liam in tow. “What do you losers want?” he said brashly.

The men blinded and their eyes turned black.

“Yeah, you’re fuckin’ demons we get it.  You don’t have to show off.  Now, what do you want? As you can see we’re a bit busy here,” the trickster said unimpressed.  “You here for them or me?”

One demon cocked his head slightly.  “Well, we came for them and you’re just an added bonus.”

“You kinky bastards.  At least buy me dinner first,” the trickster said sardonically.  “What is it you want with these boys anyway? Cause if you want them dead, just give me a moment, but otherwise, we’re trying to settle something here.  They’ve tried to kill me.  As you can see by the hole in me bloody t-shirt, so if you don’t mind—”

“Shut the hell up,” another one of the demons said.

The trickster looked down at Liam.  “Not a friendly bunch, are they?” he whispered.

“Where’s the blond one?” the first demon said stepping forward.

“Blond one?” the trickster mocked and looked around.  “No, blond ones here, just three brunettes havin’ a good time.”

“We saw him come in here,” the demon said bluntly.

“Well, maybe you’re eyes are a bit hazy from all that black, because I haven’t a clue what you’re on about.”

“I guess we’ll just have to have a look around then.”  The demons broke off.  Harry shifted over toward the trickster and Liam as the demons skirted around them, but keeping their eyes glued to the three of them.  

As two of the demons rounded the counter, both Liam and Harry tensed up, but the demons kept walking toward the back kitchen area while the other three circled around the three in the front area.

“Please tell me you have a plan,” Liam whispered through clenched teeth as he glanced up making eye contact with the trickster, who winked back at him.

There was a loud clang in the back area where the two other demons disappeared, followed by more loud noises and a shout of “Fuck you!” in an Irish accent. 

The other three demons looked on and waited, and then one of them looked at the trickster with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, I wasn’t lying exactly, he’s a bottle-blond,” the trickster said.

More clanging came from the back area, followed by an abrupt silence.

Liam closed his eyes for a moment and his hands began to shake.  Harry stared intently toward the back area, his eyebrows knitted together in worry.

A demon emerged from the archway, stepping into the area behind the counter, but he wasn’t alone.  Niall held the demon-killing knife to its throat, the blade already stained red.

“Leave,” Niall said sternly. “Or I slit his throat.”

“Not ‘til we get what we came for,” the other demon said.

“Well, you’re not leaving here with any of us, so fuck off,” Niall said adding more pressure to the blade against the demon’s throat.

The trickster side-glanced at Harry and flicked his eyes over to the demon that stood between him and the angel and Harry gave a light nod.  He loosened the grip on Liam’s shirt and gave Liam a light tap on the shoulder.

The demon in the middle stared just passed the trickster into Niall’s devilish eyes. “Kill him,” the middle demon said with a shrug.  “We’ve got plenty more demons to take his place.”

Niall stared back at the demon.  “Fine,” he said flatly.  “Have it you’re way.”  And just like that Niall drew the knife back and plunged it into the demon’s chest.  Before the body even fell to the floor, Niall was hurtling up and across the counter. 

Harry grabbed the demon in front of him and a shiny silver blade dropped out of his sleeve.  He gripped it tightly and plunged it up through the demons jaw and into his brain.  Harry pulled the blade out quickly, bringing out a string of red, bloodied, slime, stuck to the tip of it.

The other two demons charged toward the trickster and Liam, who jumped up and grabbed the one to the far left by the hair as Niall came up and stabbed the demon through its neck.  

The trickster grabbed the other demon by the neck, squeezed as tight as possible with one hand, and lifted the demon’s feet off the floor.  “You black-eyed fuckers don’t know when to give up,” he said through clenched teeth. 

Harry, Liam and Niall watched as the demon struggle against the trickster’s grip.

The bell on the front door rang out as two more demons came into the diner. 

The trickster took one look at them and threw the choking demon into a heap in the corner of the diner.  Niall and Harry held up their blades toward the demons.

The demons charged the group, one knocking Liam and Niall to the floor, the knife sliding across the floor, and the other demon went straight for the trickster.

The demon that landed on top of Niall and had his hands around Niall’s throat.  Struggling to breathe, Niall reached out as far as he could for the knife that lay only just out of his reach.  Liam scrambled to his feet going for the knife, but with a quick jolt of the demon’s head, Liam was sent across the room, sliding over a table, and landing on the floor on the other side.

Harry maneuvered around the trickster, who hand a strange orange colored light emitting from his hand as he placed it on the demons face. 

Niall struggled under the demon’s hands, gasping for air, hand still reaching out for the knife.

Harry raised his blade and drove it into the demons back, the light sputtered from its body in violent spurts.  Harry withdrew the blade and the demon collapsed onto Niall, who quickly rolled the body off him and sucked air into his lungs and coughed.

The eyes of the demon the trickster held onto burst out into flames and the demon screamed loudly.

There was a commotion in the corner as the other demon the trickster threw away, slowly got to its feet and came toward the boys.  Niall reached out, pick up the knife, scrambling to his feet as the demon ran toward the trickster. Niall’s blade trusting up into the demon’s stomach.  Its mouth and eyes wide open.  Niall pulled the blade back out and the demon fell to the floor, but Niall wasn’t done.  He knelt down and stuck the red blade into the demon’s corpse over and over.  The knife sticking and pulling at the cherry like, gooey insides of the body.  The blood splattered onto Niall’s hand and arms, all the way up to make tiny speckles on his face, mixing in with his freckles.  More and more anger surged through Niall’s hands, his face contorted with an absolute rage.

“Niall!” Liam yelled from the other side of the room.

Harry reached his out.  “Niall stop,” he said hesitantly.

Over and over the blade sliced into the flesh of the body.

Harry grabbed at Niall’s shoulders, pulling at him.  “Niall stop!” he yelled this time.  Harry pulled Niall backwards, practically throwing Niall to the floor, holding him down.  “Niall!”

Niall went livid against Harry’s strength.  The angel didn’t want to use his full strength and hurt Niall, but the boy wasn’t giving him much choice. 

Liam stepped up to them. “Niall please…” he choked out quietly.

That’s when Harry lifted Niall’s shoulders only inches off the ground and slammed him down, making his head hit solidly against the hard floor.  “Niall!” Harry yelled.

Suddenly, Niall stopped fighting back and his eyes opened with a slightly shocked look when he noticed Harry on top of him. 

Niall’s breathing was heavy and his pulse was racing.

Harry flopped to the floor beside him and Niall just laid there, staring up at the ceiling.

“Well, that was a bit excessive,” the trickster said looking at all the bodies around them, particularly the one that already had blood pooling around it, with about thirty plus knife holes in it.

“Harry,” Liam said staring at the trickster.  “Get Niall out to the car and stay there,” he said sternly.

Harry picked up the demon-killing knife and handed it to Liam, then picked up his own blade and he grabbed Niall’s arm and started lifting him off the floor.  Niall followed almost as if he was on autopilot.

When they were gone, Liam and the trickster stood in silence for a moment.

“So, what now?” the trickster said eyeing up Liam.

“Well, Tom… or whatever your name is—”

“Louis,” the trickster cut him off.  “Me name’s Louis Tomlinson.”

“I didn’t know trickster’s had last names,” Liam said.

Louis shrugged.  “I’ve got a lot of names, but…that’s me real name, I suppose.  And the question still stands, what now?  You came here to kill me, but instead we saved each other’s lives.”

Liam sighed. “What happens is that you leave.  You put everything back the way it was.  Cure anyone who’s still alive and you leave.”

“Just like that you’re gonna let me go?” Louis asked.

“Look, I don’t like what you do, but I also know that I can’t kill you. Both in the physical sense and I also don’t know if I want to…those demons were here for us and I’ve seen how much power you’ve got and I know you could’ve just left, but you didn’t.  So, I’m giving you this opportunity to set things right and leave.”

Louis nodded.  “Fair enough, I suppose.”  He looked around them at the mess they made of the diner.  “I’ll clean this lot up as well.  I kinda liked this place, wouldn’t want to leave it like this.”  Louis smirked up at Liam.

Liam didn’t notice it before, but there was something oddly boyish and young about the being in front of him.  He thinks maybe it was Louis’ soft blue eyes.  They were different from Niall’s in more than color but also in a way, he couldn’t explain.

“I’ll see you around, Liam,” Louis said.  “And uh, take care of those two and watch out for the Irish one, that kind of rage doesn’t just go away.”

Liam gave a quick nod in understanding, and just before his eyes, the trickster, along with all the bodies disappeared and the diner went back to looking like normal.

Liam walked outside into the cold night and crossed the street toward the car.  When he looked in through the window, he noticed Niall wasn’t sitting up front in the passenger’s seat, but was sitting quietly in the back with his head resting on Harry’s shoulder with a blank stare across his face.

Liam got in behind the wheel.  “Let’s go home,” he said look in the rearview mirror at Niall.  Blood still flecked his cheeks and neck, splattering up the side of Niall’s scars.  Liam started the car and drove back to the motel.

They entered the quiet room, Niall tucked under Harry’s arm, leaning into the side of him.

“We’re going back tonight.  I’ll get things packed.  You get him cleaned up in the bathroom, and then we leave,” Liam said softly.  “I’m not staying here any longer than we have to.”

Harry gave a quick nod and ushered Niall into the bathroom, leaving the door open.  Liam set out some new clothes for Niall on the bed and packet everything else.  The clothes Niall was wearing would to go in a separate bag, so they could wash them when they got back home.

“You’re gonna be okay.” Liam heard Harry utter quietly in the bathroom.  “It’s gonna be fine.”

Liam cried and packed as he listened to Harry’s quiet reassurances.  Something was definitely wrong with Niall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave comments and let me know how this chapter made you feel or if anything needs revising or explaining. And fear not! Louis comes back in the next chapter!


	7. And It's No Joke To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall deals with the aftermath of their last hunt and the boys find themselves on another hunt involving a trickster and it goes horribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes, I know it's been over a year since I posted a chapter for this fic. I was working on "Even If You Slip Away" and then paused that to write my 1d big bang fic, "If We Don't Leave This Town". I was working on this chapter almost the entire time and as I am not done with "Even If You Slip Way" I want to work on both simultaneously and just post whatever chapter I finish first. 
> 
> I suggest rereading the prior chapters before reading this one since it's been so long. (Also feel free to check out my other fics in the meantime!)
> 
> Title from "Over Again" by One Direction

They got back to the house around 8 o’clock in the morning.  Niall didn’t say a word the entire ride there.  He just sat in the backseat, quietly staring out the window.

They grabbed their bags from the car and shuffled into the house.  Niall went straight upstairs to his room, closing and locking the door behind him.

Harry and Liam looked at each other for a moment and went up to their own rooms to unpack. 

Liam stood in the quiet of his room for a moment.  He took in a deep breath and then breathed out slowly.  He heard Harry scurry downstairs.  It was weird that he could do that now, tell the difference between the other two moving about the house. Liam put his suitcase on the end of his bed and zipped it open; pulling out his clothes, chucking them into different piles on top of the bedspread so he could start laundry later.  At the bottom of the suitcase, was the bag that had Niall’s bloodied clothes in it.  He didn’t want Niall to have to see or deal with it.  He put the bag under his bed. He’d sneak it down and try to get the blood out later on, maybe when Niall went to bed. 

There was a knock at the open door and Liam turned to see Niall standing there shifting awkwardly on his feet.

“Can I talk to you?” Niall said quietly, looking up at Liam.  His eyes were slightly red and his face a little puffy.

“Of course,” Liam said with a quick smile.

“I uh…I’m sorry about what I did back there,” Niall started and he took a couple steps into Liam’s room.  “I dunno what happened.  It was like I was there, but I wasn’t at the same time and I dunno what was happening and it was like it wasn’t real and—” He couldn’t continue and tears were rolling down his pale cheeks.  “I dunno what’s happening to me, Liam.  I…What if…What if something’s wrong with me? Or what if there’s nothing wrong with me and it’s just me? I dunno what to do…”

Liam closed the space between them and put his hands on Niall’s shoulders.  “What happened back there, as far as I’m concerned, was a heat of the moment kind of situation.  We were in trouble and yeah, it went a bit too far, but Niall, the fact that you are worried about it, tells me that you are the same happy-go-lucky guy that I know.” Seeing that Niall wasn’t quite convinced, Liam continued.  “And if it would make you feel better, Harry and I will keep an eye on you, alright? You still are and always will be my best friend, and if there is something up, we’ll figure it out.”

Niall nodded weakly, his eyes to the floor, as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.  He stepped back slightly.  “Uh… where’s… where’s Harry?”

“I think he went downstairs.  Probably watching TV or something.”

Niall chuckled.  “I think he watches that TV more than we do,” he said with a smile.

Liam laughed.  “Probably gonna have to stage an intervention soon.”

Niall’s smile widened and Liam’s smile got bigger just by seeing the tiniest bit of brightness in Niall’s eyes.

“I’m gonna go down and make something to eat.  You want anything?” Niall said casually.

“Yeah, sure.  I’m gonna to a bit of laundry so, if you bring your stuff down, I can toss it in with mine.  We should probably teach Harry how to do laundry or at least separate his loads. He might be an angel, but I’m also not his mother,” Liam said with a smile.

Niall laughed. “Alright, I’m gonna see what we got to eat.”

Niall exited the room, went to grab his own stuff, and went downstairs.  He saw the back of Harry’s head sticking up from the couch, but turned down the hall to put his dirty clothes in the laundry room that was just off the kitchen.

He went back toward the kitchen but stopped and peered across the hall to the living room.  He could see the TV and there was a commercial playing for Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.  Harry giggled when the person on the TV poked the Pillsbury Doughboy’s tummy.

Niall walked up behind the couch and Harry turned, wrenching his neck to look at Niall.  Harry gave him a comforting smile and turned back to the TV.

“I’m sorry,” Niall said quietly.

Harry turned in his seat to face Niall.  “About what?”

“About what you had to do,” Niall said meekly.  “I know you don’t like violence and you don’t like hurting people.  I’m sorry for putting you into that position.”

Harry looked down for a moment and Niall started to walk away. 

“They were empty, you know…” Harry said looking up and Niall stopped and turned back to Harry.  “Their vessels were empty.  Those people’s souls were already gone.  It was just their bodies with demons in them.” Harry gave a small smile and turned back to the TV.

Niall thought for a moment then took a step forward. “What…What about the one that I…the one that I uh—”

Harry twisted back around. “They were all just demons, Niall.  You didn’t hurt anyone.  It was just a demon. And I know what you’re thinking and I’m not just saying that to make you feel better, it’s the truth.”  Harry stood, turned off the TV, and walked around the couch so he was standing in front of Niall.  “You lost control and went too far…it happens, but you need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”  Harry looked straight into Niall’s eyes.  “You’re a good person, Niall. I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.  But you need to believe that you’re a good person…if that makes any sense.”

Niall looked down at the floor and nodded slightly.

“Good.”  Harry didn’t say anything after that and just wandered off down the hall to the study.

Liam came down the stairs with a laundry basket with the lights and darks separated on either side.  “I went into Harry’s room to grab his laundry and there was just this mound of clothes of his bed.  Think he just dumped out his suitcase and left it,” Liam said with a laugh as he passed Niall, who was walking back to the kitchen.  Liam disappeared into the laundry room and Niall went for the fridge to find something for them to eat.

At first look, it was mostly empty.  They were running out of food before they left on the last hunt and haven’t gone shopping since.  Niall opened the freezer door and found one of those readymade pizzas.  It was almost 9am but neither Niall nor Liam had eaten in a while.  He stood there for a while staring at the frozen pizza, the cold air making the hair stand up on his skin.

Liam came around the corner and entered the kitchen.  “I have to admit,” he began saying.  “I know it may sound a bit lame, but one of my favorite parts of living here is the fact that we don’t have to stand in a laundromat waiting for our clothes, worried that someone’s going to steal them.” Liam chuckled.  “Where’s Harry gone off to?  I was going to show him how to use the washing machine.”  Liam waited, staring at Niall who was still standing in front of the refrigerator with the freezer door wide open.  “Niall, did you hear a word I’ve said?” Liam said looking at Niall’s back curiously.

Niall still didn’t move.

“Niall?” Liam said stepping forward.

Just then, Harry came into the kitchen, stopped, and looked at Liam.  “What are you looking at?” Harry said with a furrowed brow.

Liam pointed to over to Niall and Harry stooped over to follow Liam’s gaze, still confused about what was causing Liam to make that face.

“Niall!” Liam called.

He still didn’t move.

Harry and Liam exchanged a worried look. 

“Niall?” Harry said quietly.

Suddenly, Niall’s body relaxed and he turned to face the two confused boys.  “All I could find was a frozen pizza,” Niall said nonchalantly. 

Liam and Harry kept staring at him.

“What?” Niall asked eyes looking back and forth between them.

“You feeling alright?” Liam asked hesitantly.

Niall’s face screwed up in confusion.  “Yeah, I’m fine.  It’s just pizza, Liam.  We’ve eaten worse for breakfast.”  Niall turned back toward the freezer and grabbed the frozen pizza and put it on the counter, then went over to preheat the oven.

 

 

Liam and Niall sat at the kitchen table eating their pizza.  Liam tried to explain laundry to Harry and separating his lights from his darks so his lights don’t turn a weird blue-grey color.

They’d both occasionally take quick glances at Niall, who was just quietly eating his pizza and bobbing his head to a song he was singing to himself.  Liam could see Niall’s fingers moving like he was playing his guitar on his pizza crust, so it was a song that Niall knew how to play.

They ate the entirety of the small pizza.  Niall cleaned up afterwards, and Liam took Harry into the laundry room to give him a 101 session of doing laundry.  Niall laughed at the weirdness of an angel doing laundry, but Liam was big into people pulling their own weight, especially when it came to domestic things like laundry and cleaning.  Niall didn’t mind cleaning, but he’d already gotten in trouble for putting things in the dryer that were supposed to be hung up to dry.

 

A week went by and things were quiet, both in the way of weird news stories and in the house.  Harry stuck by Niall’s side almost the entire time.  Just keeping an eye on him and sitting through countless hours of Niall watching golf on TV. 

They tried looking into the demons that attacked them at the diner, but when Niall called, Sandy couldn’t tell them much other than they hadn’t heard from a few of their other hunter friends in a while and when they went looking for them, they came across a bunch of demons.  At this point, Rory and Justin were still missing.

Niall and Liam were worried.  They’d met Justin and Rory back when they were eighteen.  Zayn was still there and Niall even remembered exchanging numbers, just in case either of the groups got into any trouble.  Now, the names seemed heavy in Niall’s phone.

Liam found them a case in the middle of Pennsylvania.  Between phone calls and emails with the sheriff’s department, Liam thinks they are dealing with a few different cursed objects, since all the police reports describe everthing from a fake jackolantern to porcelain Easter bunny being found in the middle of each crime scene.  Plus, they had narrowed down the manufacturer to an abandoned factory along the Susquehanna River, but the police didn’t find anything there when they searched the building. 

 

The boys arrived at the abandoned factory around midday. 

“So, we just find all the objects, salt and burn ‘em right?” Niall said stepping out of the driver’s seat.  Liam was a little leery of letting Niall drive since he hadn’t driven since September, but Niall made the argument of it being his car and Liam didn’t feel like arguing with him.

Liam looked at the decrepit building, eyes squinting in the bright sun.  “That’s the idea.  The problem is more in finding all the objects, if that is what we are dealing with here.”

Harry climbed out of the backseat, stumbling over his own feet and joining Niall and Liam in looking at the factory.  “Not to be a nuisance, but do you think I could at least spend one car ride in the front seat.  My legs don’t fit in the back.”

“Should’ve picked a shorter vessel, Harry,” Niall chuckled.

Harry frowned.

“Well, let’s get to it, not going to figure anything out just standing here staring at it,” Liam said leading the way into the side door of factory.

The boys spread out and searched the building, each taking a different area.  They met back up by the side door they came in through.

“Anything?” Niall asked as Harry came back around.

“Nothing,” Harry said with a shake of his head.

Liam came in a few minutes later.

“Please tell me you found something,” Niall said dramatically.

“I did, but you’re not going to like it,” Liam said walking towards them.  “I found these up in the office area,” Liam said opening up his had to reveal a bunch of empty candy wrappers.

Niall’s head rolled back.  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he said loudly.

Harry’s shoulders slumped at he stared at the contents of Liam’s hand.

“I think we might me dealing with another trickster,” Liam said throwing the wrappers on the floor.

“Or the same one,” Niall said with a sigh.

Harry let out a quiet whine.

“Well, it definitely seems like it’s living here, so…” Liam trailed off.

“We stake the place out?” Niall questioned.

“Or we set a trap,” Liam said.

Both boys looked at Harry.

“Got any ideas on that?” Niall said looking at the angel.

Harry thought for a moment and then a smirk came across his face. 

 

 

“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth here, Harry, but these bloody sigils are hard to draw,” Liam said.  He was kneeling on the ground, sitting back on his heels, while he painted a fox shaped sigil on the wall of the factory.

Niall was on the other side of the room painting the exact same symbol on the wall.  His knee was bothering him, so he found a crate to sit on while he worked.

“I didn’t come up with the thing,” Harry sighed.  “I’m not even sure it will work, to be honest.  There are a so many different myths and origins of tricksters who knows where this one could be from?”

“That’s not very comforting, Hazza,” Niall said glancing over his shoulder.  “Plus, I thought you said you’ve come across tricksters before.”

“I have, but usually we stay out of their way and they stay out of ours.  The ones that I’ve come across were lower level tricksters, Kitsune and Coyote.  More spirits than gods.”

“And the one from the diner? What was he?” Niall asked.

“His powers extended pretty far and he wasn’t even using his full strength, he could have wiped out those demons easily enough, but he was definitely a trickster god.”

“That’s why the wooden stake didn’t work on him,” Liam said looking at Harry then Niall.

“Yep.  The incidents here seem less about a trick and more about killing people,” Harry added.

“So, it might not be the same one?” Niall asked.

“Could be, but I don’t know for sure.  Tricksters are very unpredictable,” Harry finished with a frown.

Niall turned back to the wall to finish painting the sigil.  “At this point, Harry,” he started.  “I honestly don’t blame you for hating tricksters.  Their getting to be a pain me arse as well.”  Niall shot a quick smile over to Harry, who smiled back.

 

 

Liam and Niall finished painting the sigils and the three boys sit in the little area of the factory, waiting with a few different weapons.  They had they wooden stakes, and Liam had gone to morgue to get blood from one of the victims, left the car a couple blocks away, walking the rest of the way to the factory.  They had a couple iron stakes, and Niall had silver bullets in his gun.  It had occurred to all of them that this might not be a trickster so they prepared for just about anything.

Niall sat on his little crate while he pretended the wooden stake in his hands was a guitar.  Liam just kept flipping his around the back of his hands.

Niall’s hands stilled and he bit at his bottom lip, eyes shifting. “What if it doesn’t show up?” Niall said. His forearms rested on his knees, hands dangling between his thighs.  Niall stood up.  “I mean, what if these sigils don’t even work?”

A strange noise came from behind Niall. 

“Actually, you did a pretty decent job with the sigils,” a familiar voice said. 

Niall turned to see Louis standing behind him, he fumbled backwards slightly holding up the wooden stake. Liam and Harry shot up from where they were sitting holding up their weapons.

“Is that any way to treat an old friend?” Louis said cocking his head to the side.

“So, this is you…again?” Liam sputtered out.

“This?” Louis said pointing at the floor.  “Not quite. I mean, you are hunting a trickster, it’s just…not me,” he said with a quick shrug of his shoulders.

“If this isn’t you then why are you here?” Harry asked.  The three boys were standing shoulder to shoulder with Niall in the middle, all facing Louis with their weapons drawn.

“Simply put, I have a bit of a score to settle with this bastard,” Louis said with a smirk.

“Wait. Then if the sigils are right, then how the hell are you,” Niall gestured to Louis. “How are you like here?”

“Wrong sigil.  Doesn’t work on me.  I’m not some low level piece of scum like Bernard here. And as I said, I’m a god.  Bernard, who is the real enemy here, is only a shitting little trickster spirit.  Hence the extremely boring deaths in the area.  I mean, cursed objects?  Really? Amateur,” Louis said cockily. 

Niall and Liam lowered their weapons and with a quick glance to Harry from Niall, the angel lowered his as well. 

“Good!” Louis said brightly.  “So, I guess I’ll be joining you then.  Just for the time being of course.  I couldn’t give a shit what happens to the three of you, especially you, Chicken-Feathers,” Louis added with a wink at Harry.  “But I want and need Bernard dead and you lads, seem like a capable bunch.”

“You’re not staying here,” Harry said angrily.

Louis took a few strides forward so he was standing directly in front of Harry. “Lighten up, Harold.  We have a long day and maybe even night to spend together and I don’t want to spend it getting a death glare from a low-level, little cherub like yourself.” Louis reached his hand up and gently patted Harry’s cheek.  “Smile love, no one likes a party pooper.”

 

 

Two hours passed and there was still no sign of the other trickster or as Louis kept calling him, “That bastard, Bernard.”

Liam sat up against the far wall watching Harry and Niall giggle about something.  Harry probably told one of his stupid jokes.  Niall seemed to laugh no matter how bad the joke was and Liam was thankful for Harry’s horrible sense of humor in that regard.

Louis came over, sliding his back down the wall so he was sitting next to Liam. 

“So, what’s the story there then?” Louis asked gesturing toward Harry and Niall.  “You and the leprechaun make sense, probably raised as hunters, but what about the angel? Find him on the side of the road or something? Decide he’d look good on the mantel?”

Liam shrugged.  “He just sort of showed up one day,” he said plainly.

“Oh, come on.  Something must have happened and my guess is that it had something to do with the cherub-faced, bottle-blonde over there.”

Liam watched as Niall’s face grew into another big grin as he silently laughed at Harry.  “I don’t know,” Liam said quietly.  “Shit just went downhill and—”

“It was hellhounds, wasn’t it?” Louis interrupted. 

Liam jerked his head over to look at Louis.

“Hard not to notice the marks,” Louis started to say as he looked at the ground.  “I’ve been around a while; I’ve seen marks like that before.”  Louis picked something off the floor and snapped it in his hands.  “Is that why Harry showed up? He saved him?”

Liam gaze dropped then landed back on Niall.  He shook his head.  “No…” he said picking at a splinter that was sticking out of the wooded stake in his hands.  “No, Niall was hunting with our other friend, Zayn, and they got into it with a crossroad demon.  Niall got hurt.  It was bad and they didn’t think he was gonna make it.  And… and Zayn sold his soul to save Niall.”

The two of them stayed quiet for a moment.

“Well, that’s the theory anyway,” Liam said a bit brighter.  “Niall woke up and the doctors couldn’t explain it and I got to find one of me best mates ripped to pieces out in the middle of nowhere. So, there’s that.”

Louis sighed.  “I know it doesn’t mean much, but I am sorry.”

“Yeah, well, Harry showed up not long after that when Niall…”Liam trailed off and Louis got the notion that it wasn’t something that Liam wanted to talk about.  “It doesn’t really matter.”

They sat in silence once more.  Niall and Harry were occupying themselves by playing tic-tac-toe in the dust on the floor.

Louis watched Niall and Harry as he spoke to Liam.  “It’s not very common, you know? To have a live-in angel.  Most of the little winged fellows don’t spend much time on earth.  Don’t want to get attached.”

Liam didn’t say anything so Louis continued.

“Eventually, they will make him go back and even if they don’t, he won’t age.  He’ll watch the two of you get older. Watch you fade away.”

“You think we should make him leave just so he doesn’t have to go through that?” Liam asked.

“No, I think he should hold onto the two of you for as long as he can,” Louis said quickly. 

Liam looked at him confused.

Louis sighed.  “When you’ve been alive for as long as I have, you learn to appreciate things.  And if there is one thing I’ve grown to appreciate, its people.  Humans.  Having friends.”

“I never pegged you for the sentimental type,” Liam said with a smirk.  “Or the type to have friends. Especially, with the whole killing people thing that you’ve got going on.”

“Yeah, well that’s another issue within itself.  Another problem for another day sort of thing.  But yeah, I’ve had friends.  I watched most of them die. Tried to save a few of them.”

“Save?” Liam questioned.

“Yeah, save.  It happened…” Louis thought for a moment, “…maybe twenty years ago, now.  A friend of mine, got into some trouble similar to the Irish one,” he gestured toward Niall.  “And he wasn’t himself and his insides were covered in this black crap.  Long story short, we figured out what it was and I helped save him.”

“What happened to him? Like afterward?” Liam asked.

“He died.  About five years later, which was a big old mess and a lot of bad came out of that day.”

Liam looked down at the floor, “I’m sorry.”

Louis shrugged.  “It’s in the past.  We all make mistakes and then we have to live with them.”

A loud noise came from the other side of the factory; all the boys perked up and tightened their grips on the wooden stakes.

“Oh, here we go,” Louis muttered as he got to his feet.

The boys stayed quiet and waited patiently up against the wall of the doorway leading into the area.  Niall and Liam both pulled out smaller knives and made a small cut on the palm of their hand so they were ready to activate the sigil when the trickster came in the room.

They could hear the light shuffling of feet coming toward them.  The doorknob twisted and with a crack, the door opened.  The first thing they saw come through the door was a gun clasped in the hands of someone wearing a dark blue shirt.  The figure stepped into the room and the boys could see that it was in fact a police officer…followed by more police officers.

The officers saw Liam and Louis first. “Freeze! Don’t move!”  They came in and surrounded the two boys, pointing their guns at Liam and Louis and that’s when they noticed Harry and Niall on the other side.  Their stance shifted and all four boys had guns pointed right at them.  “Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!” one officer yelled.

They all dropped the wooden stakes and put their hands in the air.  Harry gave Niall a confused look.  The blood from their hands started to run down Niall and Liam’s arms. 

The one officer, who was a short, portly man, reached for his radio and mumbled something.

“You’ve got to be fucking joking,” Louis muttered.

“Now, move to the center of the room and keep your hands up!”

The four boys met in the middle of the room and Niall was suddenly aware of the gun tucked into the back of his pants.

They patted down each of the boys, but as soon as the one put his hands on Niall, he spoke up.  “I’m just gonna get this out in the open, but there is a gun tucked into the back of me waistband.”

Suddenly, there was an extra gun being pointed at Niall. 

“I do have a permit for that, by the way,” Niall said as the officer pulled the gun from the back of his jeans.

“Get them back to the station as quickly as possible,” the officer said as they boys were put into handcuffs and read their rights.  “You’re under arrest for the murders of…” and the officer continued to list off seemingly familiar names.  And that’s when they realized they were being arrested for the murders of the people the trickster killed.  They were yanked to their feet and the officers lead them toward the door one after the other.

Outside were about eight police cars and a couple unmarked cars.  Niall could see Harry being pushed into the back of one of the cars, confused and scared.  Niall wished they had put them in the same car.  He saw Louis and Liam when the officer was putting him into the back of a police car and he could see by the look on Louis’ face that he was planning something and that worried Niall.  He knew how Liam would be around police officers and he hoped that Harry would be okay, but Louis was a bit of a wildcard in this situation.

 

 

They were processed as soon as they got to the police station and swiftly shirted off to the holding cells in the back.  Luckily, they put two per cell so Niall and Harry ended up in one and Louis and Liam were in the other. 

“I spend one fuckin’ day with you idiots and just like that—” Louis started.

“Oh, give it a rest,” Niall said.  He was sitting on a bench, leaning his head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling.  Harry sat quietly next to him.  “And if this is such an inconvenience for you, why don’t you just pop on out of here?”

“Well, for your information, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that these stupid pigs found us there.  So, I intend to stick around until I know what’s going on,” Louis said snidely and Liam rolled his eyes.

“Do you think this is the other trickster?” Harry asked quietly.

“You think he set us up?” Liam said looking over at Harry through the bars of the cell.

“It’s what I would do,” Niall said with a quick shrug of his shoulders.  “He probably knew we were waiting for him, so he dropped a dime to the cops that we were the killers or something.”

“So, what do we do?” Harry questioned.  His eyes were bright in the florescent light of the holding area and Harry looked so young sitting next to Niall.

Niall peered over at Harry. “We wait.  See what kind of evidence they have and go from there.”

 

 

It was starting to get dark and the four boys were getting restless.  Niall occupied himself by pretending to play guitar, fingering along with the song that was stuck in his head.  Louis had already given Liam two wet-willies and was planning on a third.  Harry sat next to Niall, twirling his thumbs around each other.

Niall’s fingers stopped and he sighed. “Harry?” Niall whispered so the Liam and Louis wouldn’t hear.  “If we get pegged for this, I want you to leave, okay?  You and Louis can get out of here and—”

“I’m not leaving you, Niall,” Harry said shifting his gaze to Niall.

“You could.” Niall smiled and stared back at Harry.  He didn’t want Harry to leave, but he didn’t want him to get stuck with them either. 

“Well, I’m not.” Harry smiled and Niall could see his dimples.

Two officers entered the holding area and stopped in front of Niall and Harry’s cell. 

“We need to see Mr. Styles for a moment,” one of the officers said as they unlocked the cell door.

Harry looked over at Niall with a worried expression.  They pulled Harry to his feet and cuffed his hands behind his back, but Harry’s eyes never left Niall, as if he was pleading for Niall to help him.

Niall sat there helplessly as the escorted Harry to the front area, the door slamming behind them.

“That can’t be good,” Liam said quietly.

Niall leaned forward raking his hands through his hair with his forearms propped on his knees.  “Jesus Christ.”  Niall pinched his eyes shut and he pulled at his hair nervously.

“He’ll be fine,” Louis said casually.

 

 

According to the clock on the wall, Harry’d been gone for over an hour.  Liam paced back and forth in front of Louis, who was sitting cross-legged on the little bench with his arms tucked inside his shirt, shivering slightly. 

“Liam, you’re going to wear a ditch into the floor if you keep pacing like that,” Louis said pointedly, his arms popping out of his shirt sleeves.

Liam stopped.  “Well, I don’t like just sitting around waiting like this,” he said throwing his arms in the air.  “I wanna know what’s going on.”  Liam turned to face Niall in the other cell.  His eyebrows knitted together, “You okay there, Nialler?”

Niall was sitting on the bench, with hands resting in his lap and his head slumped over.

He nodded slightly as he picked his head up slowly and looked at Liam.  His lips were pale, his eyes looked sunken in, and his skin looked shiny with sweat.

“You sure about that?” Louis said uncrossing his legs and peering over at Niall.

Niall nodded again.

“Niall, are you ill? Do you want us to try ‘n get someone back here?” Liam asked worriedly.

Niall shook his head.  “I’m fine,” he said quietly as his head sank back down.  “It’s just a bit hot in here I guess.”

Liam and Louis shared a worried glance.

Liam looked back at Niall trying to figure out what to do.  This wasn’t the first time that Niall got like this and both times, it seemed to come out of nowhere. 

“Niall, I—” Liam began, but his concentration was broken when a loud crash came from the front area of the police station, and their heads shot up.

“What the hell was that?” Louis said nervously.

There was a loud commotion followed by gunshots and yelling. 

The door to the holding area burst open and three officers ran in and slammed the door behind them.

“What’s going on?” Liam asked through the bars of the cell. 

The three officers looked panicked and terrified as two of them pressed themselves against the door.

“It wasn’t human,” the one officer said, his gun clenched in his hands.

“Let me guess,” Louis said standing up.  “The guy’s about 5’ 10”, brown hair, bit stocky, flinging people all over the place with the flick of his finger?”

The officer nodded quickly.

“How’d you know that?” one of the officers leaning against the door said through clenched teeth.

Niall stumbled to his feet and grabbed onto the cell bars to stabilize himself. “Is this Bernard?” he asked wearily, looking at Louis.

“Looks to be that way,” Louis said ignoring the officer.

Liam looked at the officer holding his gun.  “You need to let us out of here,” Liam said sternly.

“Why would I do a thing like that? For all we know, that thing is here to break you out!” the officer spat out.

Louis moved to stand next to Liam looking through the bars.  “Trust me, that tosser is not here to break us out. Bit more like, _here to break our necks_.”

“We need to get to Harry,” Niall said leaning his forehead against the cold bars of the cell.

Liam went up to Niall, reaching through the bars, and placing his hand on the side of Niall’s face.  “Niall, you’re boiling hot—”

“I’m fine,” Niall repeated raising his head.  “We need to get Harry and we need to kill that thing.” Niall managed a weak smile.

“He’s right, Liam,” Louis whispered.  “I can take Bernard, but I can’t do it from inside this bloody cell.  Legal or not, I don’t really give a damn anymore.”

Things were getting more hectic out in the main room.  They could hear gunfire and yelling followed by the faint sounds of laughter.

Liam looked at Niall who seemed as if he was about to faint.  “Do it,” he said looking over at Louis.  “Break it down if you have to, we can’t just sit here and wait.”

Louis gave Liam a quick nod and with a flick of his hand, the cell door came off its hinges and crashed down to the floor. 

The three officers watched as Liam and Louis exited the cell. One officer pulled their gun on them, but Louis flourished his hand and the gun went flying against the wall.

“We don’t have time for that shit,” Louis muttered and he turned to do the same to the cell that held Niall.  

The officers backed away looking terrified at Louis. They seemed to have lost all intention of stopping them anymore.

Liam rushed in and put Niall’s arm around his shoulder and held him up as he helped him step over the broken cell door.  Niall was getting heavier in his arms and Liam could feel the heat radiating off Niall’s body. “Is this Bernard?” he said looking from Niall to Louis.

“I honestly don’t know, doesn’t seem like Bernard’s style,” Louis said.

“That doesn’t make me feel much better,” Liam said adjusting his hold on Niall.

Louis peered out the small window in the door. “I think if we are going to make a break for it, we should go now,” he said looking back at Liam.  “You ready?”

Liam nodded and Louis creaked the door open slightly, making one last look around before he opened it further and with Liam and Niall at his heels, they made their way out into the chaos of the main room. 

 

Harry sits in the interrogation room, handcuffed to the table.  He can hear gunshots and yelling out in the main room, when suddenly the door bursts open.  A stocky man with brown hair enters the room.

“Ah, the angel,” the man says. 

Harry recoils, pulling at the handcuffs, as Bernard advances.  His hand goes to Harry’s throat, but the angel pulls on the cuffs, releasing himself from the table, and pushing Bernard away from him.

“You little shit,” the trickster says eyeing Harry.  “Didn’t think you had it in ya.”

“This stops here,” Harry says angrily.  “We’re not letting you hurt anyone else.”

“I’m not here to get anyone else, I was just going to kill the two hunters, but then I caught a whiff of you and boy, I could use an angel for a lot of things.”

With a flick of his hand, Harry flies back indenting the wall on impact and suddenly the trickster is over top of him hitting him over and over.  He pulls Harry up by his shirt.  “By the time I’m done with you,” he says through gritted teeth.  “You’re going to kill your friends for me.”  Bernard places his hand on the side of Harry’s head, making the angel cry out in pain as and electric surge passed from the trickster and into Harry. 

Harry hears someone call out and suddenly, Bernard flies across the room, landing in a heap on the floor.   Harry looks up to see Louis standing in the doorway, followed by Liam who is hold Niall. 

“I’ve got him,” Louis says advancing on Bernard.  “Check on the angel.”

Liam enters the room, setting a sick and pale Niall on the floor, leaning him against the wall before kneeling in front of Harry. 

“Harry?” Liam says clasping the angel’s face in his hands.  “You with me, buddy?”

Harry looks at Liam then over to see Niall turn his head and his eyes flutter open.  “Niall?”  Harry says and Liam steps back as the angel crawls over to the blonde boy.  Harry reaches his hand out and takes Niall’s, making the blonde look up at him and smile.  The color seemed to come back to Niall’s pale face and Harry looks over his shoulder at Liam.  “What happened?”

Liam shakes his head.  “We don’t know.  They took you and all of the sudden Niall got really sick.”

Niall moves to get up and Harry grabs his arm helping him get to his feet. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Harry says looking at Niall, still not letting Niall go.

Niall peers back at Harry with an insulted look on his face. “Are you sure _you’re_ okay?” Niall bites back and Harry drops his grip from Niall’s arm. 

“What about him?” Liam says looking over to where Louis has Bernard pinned to the ground.

“You lads get the rest of the cops and get out of here,” Louis says over his shoulder, putting further pressure on Bernard’s neck with his knee. “I’ll deal with him.”

Niall and Harry follow Liam out to the main room and begin helping the injured police officers out of the building.  All throughout the process they can hear Louis in the closed interrogation room beating the crap out of Bernard.

Liam carries the last one out the front door, but Niall pauses behind him. The interrogation room is quiet.

“Niall, come on!” Liam shouts behind him.

“Something’s wrong,” Niall says staring at the door to the interrogation room.  Niall bends down and picks up one of the discarded guns on the floor and checks the clip. “It’s probably nothing,” he says turning to Liam. “Get him out of here.”

Liam hesitates but nonetheless, he follows Niall’s instructions and brings the cop outside with the others, where Harry is seeing if he can help any of them.

Niall quietly opens the door to the interrogation room, seeing Bernard leaning over Louis on the floor, hands at his throat, and a yellowish energy seemingly electrocuting Louis.

Louis’ hand reaches out toward Niall and just as Bernard turns, Niall fires the gun hitting Bernard in the shoulder.  Bernard looks angrily over his shoulder at Niall, squeezing tightly around Louis’ neck, then he slams Louis’ head against the floor and starts toward Niall.

Niall fires again hitting Bernard in the chest…fires again hitting his stomach, again and he fires right into Bernard’s forehead, but it does nothing and Bernard keeps coming towards him, magazine empty, Bernard grabs Niall by his shirt and tosses him across the room.  Slamming into the wall, Niall groans loudly when he hits the floor, Bernard still coming for him. 

Niall tries to stand, but Bernard grabs his shirt and hits him.  And before he knows it, Niall’s back on the ground, the weight of Bernard’s body keeping him from escaping as he hits Niall over and over.

It gets harder for Niall to stay awake, eyes blurring as his face bleeds and becomes more swollen after every hit. The pain gets worse and worse until it’s easier to breathe as the pressure releases from his body. 

Niall can see Harry’s familiar tattooed arm wrapped around Bernard. 

A blueish-white light radiates out of Harry and Bernard screams.  Harry tosses the trickster to the floor, placing a hand on its chest and the clothes and skin begin to burn and Bernard yells out, but Harry keeps going. 

Liam rushes to Niall’s side, making sure that he’s still breathing.  “Nialler?” Liam says frantically. 

Meanwhile, Louis tries to get to his feet but he falls back down to the floor watching as Harry burns out Bernard’s insides, with hate in his eyes.  In a bright flash of blue, Harry releases his hold on the charred remains of Bernard.  It takes a moment for the anger in Harry’s eyes to disappear and regain their soft green hue, when he looks over at Liam and Niall on the floor beside him.

Niall chokes, blood spurting out of his mouth.

“We’ve got to get him to a hospital,” Liam says and Harry nods quickly, coming over to help Liam with Niall. Liam looks behind Harry and sees Louis sitting up against the wall, red marks on his neck.  “Harry, go help Louis,” Liam says softly.

Harry stares at Liam over his request, clearly seeing Niall as the priority.

“We help everyone,” Liam says staring back at Harry.

Harry reluctantly goes over and helps Louis to his feet.

“Alright, Nialler. It’s gonna be okay,” Liam says as he puts Niall’s arm over his shoulders, Liam’s places his arms under Niall’s legs.  When Liam picks Niall up off the floor, he hears Niall make a choking sound as he takes a fist full of Liam’s shirt. “It’s going to be okay,” Liam repeats.

“Liam, where are we supposed to go?” Harry says. “There’s police and ambulances on their way, if they’re not already here.”

“We go out the front. Niall’s hurt too badly, it doesn’t matter if they arrest us again. He has to get to a hospital.” Liam says and Harry gives him a look of concern but gives a quick nod of understanding and Harry follows Liam out to the front of the police station.

They exit the building and Harry was right, there are police from a different district, ambulances and even firefighters. 

“He needs help,” Liam says as the eyes of the emergency response people land on them as soon as they get outside. And much to all of their surprise, there aren’t any guns pointed at them and soon enough there is a gurney being pushed in front of him, where Liam lays Niall down.

Another paramedic goes to Louis, who tries pushing the man away even though Harry is the only thing keeping Louis upright.

Liam tries to follow Niall into the ambulance, but the police stop him, saying he needs to stay behind for questioning.  He looks over seeing Louis still trying to get the paramedic to leave him alone.

Liam goes over to them. “Louis, go with them.”

“What?” Louis looks at Liam.

“You’re hurt, and they won’t let me go. Someone needs to stay with Niall,” Liam says giving his best puppy eyes and Louis sighs.

“Fine.” Louis lets the paramedic help him into the ambulance with Niall.

“Don’t let anything happen to him,” Harry says to Louis with a bit of bite in his tone just before they close the back of the ambulance and drive off. 

Liam and Harry stand there watching as the ambulance drives off and disappears down the road.

“You really think that was a good idea?” Harry asks without looking at Liam.

“I guess we’ll find out…” Liam says. “Louis hasn’t healed which means that he doesn’t have much use of his powers…but Niall saved his life so maybe that’s enough to keep him in check.”

 

 

After an hour of standing around answering questions about what happened at the police station and what the four of them were doing at the abandoned factory, the police release them, but then it takes another hour, with everything going on, to get Niall’s car out of impound. 

Once Liam and Harry get to the hospital, they find Louis in the ER, on a gurney, calling the nurses and doctors all sorts of mean names, trying to get them to leave him alone, but after two hours the red marks on Louis’ neck still haven’t disappeared and the doctors seem pretty keen on figuring out what’s going on with him and how he’s still alive given the look of things.

Louis sees Liam and Harry enter the ER and he automatically calms down letting a concerned look fall across his face.

“Where’s Niall?” Harry asks almost immediately when they get to his bed.

Louis shakes his head. “I don’t know,” he says lightly then looks at the doctors and nurses around him. “These idiots won’t tell me anything and they won’t leave me alone,” Louis says eyeing the doctors. “They took him into surgery when we got here, but that’s all I know.”

Louis yanks his arm away from a nurse trying to put in an IV.  

“Humor them, Lou,” Liam says gently.  Louis eyes Liam with a dangerous look but reluctantly gives the nurse his arm.

When they get the IV in, the nurses and doctors decide to take a break from Louis, saying they’ll come back later.

“Have you been fighting them off for almost two hours?” Liam asks.

“Well, I may have escaped into the lou for a while, then I passed out and woke up back in this shite bed,” Louis says.

Harry rolls his eyes.

“But you know for sure that they took him into surgery?” Liam asks looking at Louis.

“Something about internal bleeding and—” Louis stops.

“And what?” Liam urges.

“His lung collapsed on the ride over,” Louis says softly. “They fixed it but honestly it was like the closer we got to the hospital, the worse he got and I don’t mean in like a time sort of way, but it was weird…”

Liam’s eyebrows push together in worry. “Do you think Bernard did something to him?”

Louis shakes his head and shrugs. “I don’t know…”

“Alright, well I guess we’ll have to wait to find out,” Liam says and he looks at Harry standing next to him. “Harry can you ask a nurse at the front desk or something if they know what’s going on with Nialler?”

Harry gives a quick nod and heads off toward the nurses station.

“Don’t let Harry touch Niall,” Louis says out of the blue.

“What?” Liam looks at him with a slight anger in his eyes.

“Harry’s going to try to help heal Niall. He’s only a low-level angel and after what he did to Bernard, if he takes Niall’s pain away, he’s going to end up hurting himself.  Could probably do it without any of you even noticing.  What Harry did back there…he should not be able to do that.”

“So how did he do it then?”

Louis shrugs. “I don’t know…probably like adrenaline for humans, gave him some extra kick.”

Liam sighs and runs his hands over his face.

“The little feathery chicken isn’t in the wrong here, Liam,” Louis says looking Liam in the eye. “I’m just saying that he’s gotta be a bit drained…he’s hiding it well, but that kind of power takes its toll.”

Liam turns his head and sees Harry talking to a nurse at the front desk area.

 

 

They don’t have to wait much longer for Niall to be out of surgery.  According to the doctors, his condition wasn’t as bad as they initially thought it was, and that it was mostly the scans that took up most of the time and not the small stint of surgery that Niall had to go through.

Harry sits by Niall’s bedside as they wait for him to wake up and Liam paces, because he don’t know what else to do.

Niall wakes up once the anesthesia wears off. He looks up at Harry and gives a soft smile, but as soon as Harry goes to take Niall’s hand, a look of fear comes across Niall’s faces and he quickly pulls his hand away even in his weakened state.

“Niall?” Harry says looking at Niall with concern.

“D-Don’t…touch me…” Niall says in a shaky voice.

Harry looks across the bed to where Liam stands on the opposite side of Niall.

“Harry can you give us a minute?” Liam asks.  He hates asking it, but he feels like this conversation will be easier without Harry in the room.

Harry gives a pained look, eyes glancing from Liam to Niall before he makes his way out of the room.

“What’s that all about?” Liam asks Niall the second Harry leaves the room.

Niall breathes in and out heavily.  “I-I don’t n-need him trying to take the p-pain away…”

“Nialler…” Liam says in a soft tone.  “He’s your friend…he just wants to be here for you.  For all he knows, he thinks you’re scared of him or something like that for what he did back there.” Liam pauses and takes in the contemplative look on Niall’s face. “I’m going to go get him and try to find a doctor to get you checked out.” Liam gives a soft smile and leaves the room, finding Harry slumped in a chair in the waiting room.

“He just didn’t want you straining yourself trying to take his pain away,” Liam says, remembering what Louis told him. 

“Which makes it sound like he’s in pain,” Harry says with a heavy tone.

“We’re your friends, Harry. You saved all our lives back at the police station…it’s okay if you’re not a hundred percent yet.” Liam pauses. “Stuff like this…when it happens we just take some time to heal and get back to fighting condition before we jump back into anything too quickly.”

“I’m supposed to protect him, Liam…that’s why I’m here,” Harry says but then stops. “That’s why heaven sent me here,” he corrects himself.

Liam sits down beside Harry. “It’s not all on you, mate,” he says in a soft tone. “The amount of times that the two of us have ended up beaten, bloody, and/or in hospital…it’s a part of the job. We set out to save and help as many people as we possibly can, which sometimes involves getting ourselves hurt in the process.”  Liam nudges Harry’s shoulder. “You are a part of our crazy family. Niall cares about you, and him pulling away from you back there was him trying to keep you safe so you can heal too. I need you to know that, yeah?”

Harry nods.

“Good, then let’s see if we can find a doctor to check on our boy.” Liam taps Harry’s knee before he stands up and Harry follows after him.

 

Harry sits by Niall’s side after the doctor checks on Niall and Liam stands in the doorway fondly watching Harry tell Niall some stupid joke and Niall’s face lights up.

“Good to know the little leprechaun is alright,” Louis says coming up the hallway and standing just outside of Niall’s room beside Liam, watching Harry and Niall laugh.

“How are you doing?” Liam says glancing at Louis but keeping his focus on Niall and Harry.

“Started healing finally. Didn’t want to freak out the doctors so I figured I’d get out of there,” Louis says.

“So, what does this mean for us?” Liam says, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorway when he looks at Louis. The red marks on Louis’ throat are beginning to disappear around the edges.

“It means that I owe you lot one.” Louis says. “The Irish one saved me life, and I might be just some trickster to all of you but that means something to me.”

“Does this mean no more killing people for you?” Liam says looking at Louis.

Louis laughs and shakes his head. “Don’t try to change me, Liam. It won’t work out well for you.”

Liam looks at him confused. “Is that a threat?”

“If it means you’ll stay away from me, then yeah,” Louis replies.

“I don’t think you’re as bad of a guy as you think you are,” Liam says looking from Niall to Louis.

Louis stares back at Liam. “You have no idea what I’m capable of. I owe you but I don’t owe you me life and if I come across any of you again, I’ll have no problem killing all of you.”

Before Liam can reply, Louis vanishes in front of him, Liam can’t help but shake his head at Louis’ threat, and he walks into Niall’s room, walking in on Harry’s story about being on a train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are very much appreciated and again, sorry on the wait! Next chapter deals with what's going on with Niall!
> 
> xoxo  
> -Amy


	8. We Built It Up So High and Now I'm Fallin'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall's condition gets worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was on a roll when I finished the last chapter of Even If You Slip Away so I figured I'd finish chapter 8 of this. I know this fic is almost 2 years in the works, but hopefully with NaNoWriMo this month, I will get more done on it.
> 
> Chapter title from 1d's "Long Way Down"

Liam grabs their bags from the trunk while Harry helps get Niall into the house. It’s slow going, but Harry gets Niall to the couch and sits down next to him.

“I’m going to put on the kettle,” Liam says as he closes and locks the front door.  He disappears into the kitchen, but keeps an eye on Niall and Harry in the living room.

Niall took pain meds before they started their trip back home, hoping that he’d be able to sleep for most of the ride, but that didn’t end up happening.  He sat quietly in the backseat trying to make his face look as neutral as possible, so the other two wouldn’t worry.

Harry looks at him and Niall can’t help it when his head rests on Harry’s shoulder. He’s almost asleep when he feels Harry’s hand slip into his.

Niall jerks away, sitting up and staring back at Harry. “No,” he says. “I don’t want you doing that. I’m fine.”

“Niall, you’re in pain. I can feel it,” Harry says. 

Niall shakes his head. “I’m fine,” he repeats. “I’m just…”Niall breathes in. “I’m j-just tired.”

“Ok…” Harry surrenders. “Then just rest, okay?”

Niall looks at Harry for a moment before he gives in and rests his head back on Harry’s shoulder. 

Harry waits for Niall to fall asleep before he gently takes Niall’s hand in his.  Almost immediately, Niall wakes up and tries to free himself from Harry’s grip.  He can already feel the pain starting to disappear.

“Harry, stop!” Niall says loudly and Liam comes running in from the kitchen.

“What the hell are you doing?” Liam says looking at Harry, who refuses to let go of Niall’s hand even with how much Niall pulls against him.

When he’s taken as much pain away as he possibly could, Harry looks absolutely drained as he finally lets go of Niall.

“I told you not to,” Niall breathes out staring daggers at Harry.

“You need to sleep, Niall,” Harry says. “Not just faking it.”

“Harry,” Liam steps into the living room. “Maybe we should just get Niall upstairs to bed, yeah?”

Harry breaks eye contact with Niall and looks over the back of the couch at Liam. “Probably for the best.” Harry gets up and Liam comes around, but Harry just steps back and lets Liam help Niall to his feet and up the stairs.

When Liam comes back down he gives Harry a dirty look. “What the bloody hell was that all about? I thought we agreed that it was best that you not try to help him.”

“You seemed to be under the impression that he was going to heal by himself and with how much pain he’s in, that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.”  Harry’s skin is pale and he look utterly tired where he sits on the couch.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that he’s lying to us…again.” Harry looks at Liam. 

“But why?” Liam says and he sits on the couch next to Harry. “It’s not like it’s some big secret what happened with the trickster…we were all there, we know he’s going to be in pain after something like that.”

“I don’t think it’s just that,” Harry says. “I don’t think this is just about what the trickster did to him.”

“What more could it be, Harry?” Liam sighs. “We just need to give him some time to bet better, that’s all.” Liam stands and walks around the couch toward the hallway.

“And what if it is more?” Harry asks looking over the back of the couch at Liam.

Liam turns and looks up the stairs. “Then we keep an eye on him,” he says before he looks back at Harry. “Cross that bridge if we come to it,” Liam says solemnly.  He turns and walks down the hallway toward the study.

 

 

 

Niall sits at the edge of his bed.  Liam turned the lights off before he went back downstairs, probably hoping that Niall could get some sleep, but the odds of that happening are slim.

It’s like nothing and everything is going on at the same time in his mind. He feels the pain creep back over his shoulders and his breath hitches for a moment as it spreads throughout his body and he can feel it in his fingertips and toes.

This is part of the reason he didn’t want Harry taking the pain away. He knew it would just come right back and Harry would be completely drained like he is now. But most of all, something inside him didn’t want to be near Harry. He’s an angel and it feels like that light inside of Harry is trying to kill Niall. 

He tries to focus on anything but the pain rippling through his body.  The darkness of his room doesn’t allow that though…he feels like it’s just him sitting there in an empty silence as the white-hot pain rips though him.

It shouldn’t hurt this much… he thinks to himself.  He’s been knocked around before, hell he died…was ripped to shreds by a hellhound and it didn’t hurt this much. 

He can’t tell Liam or Harry that.  Niall’s tired of being a problem for them.  Something that constantly needs attention and fixing. So, he’s going to let that feeling inside him burn and fester and hope that he lives through it.

 

 

 

A week goes by and Niall can practically feel Liam and Harry’s eyes on him with every move he makes.  It doesn’t hurt as much, or maybe he’s just gotten used to it.

Maybe what makes them the most skeptical is Niall’s distance from Harry. 

Harry tries and tries to get Niall to talk to him and let him in and Niall doesn’t budge…he won’t or can’t but the short of it is that he can’t let Harry get too close to him.

Niall’s sitting on the couch by himself when Liam walks up behind him.  “Sandy just called,” Liam says. “They’re having issues getting a hold of Josh and Jon, you haven’t heard from them by any chance, have you?”

Niall shakes his head. “No, haven’t heard from anyone really…not all that surprising though.” Niall turns back to the TV.

“What do you mean by that?” Liam asks looking at Niall curiously.

Niall sighs and turns off the TV before he gets up from the couch. “They don’t call me, Liam. No one calls me looking for help, they always call _you_ ,” Niall says with a harsh tone. He walks past Liam toward the stairs. “Guess they don’t want help from someone who can’t even help themselves,” Niall says before he starts up the stairs. “I’m going to bed.”

“Niall…”

Niall waves him off and continues up the stairs with his back to Liam. “I’ll come get you on the off chance someone contacts me.”

Liam stands there until he hears Niall’s bedroom door close followed by the sound of wind and Liam knows that Harry’s standing right behind him.

“Is he alright?” Harry asks.

Liam sighs and turns to face the angel. “I don’t know,” Liam says shaking his head. Liam’s tired and this whole thing with Josh and Jon has got him even more nervous. “You sticking around?” Liam asks.  Harry pops in and out. He never said what he gets up to when he’s not at the house with the two of them, but they figured it wasn’t any of their business.

Harry shrugs.  

“I think I’m going to go up to bed,” Liam says.

“It’s 7:30?” Harry looks at him curiously.

Liam shrugs. “I’m just tired. Some stuff is going on, but I’ll explain in the morning if you’re here.”

 

 

 

Niall hears Liam come upstairs and go into his room; he’d turned off the lights in the hallway, so Niall is sure that Liam is going to bed.

The main light in Niall’s room is off but he keeps the light on the nightstand on.

A creeping feeling crawls up his neck as if someone is sitting on the bed behind him, breathing.  The hot air ghosting over Niall’s skin.  The feeling scatters like ants on and under his skin and Niall wishes that he could just sleep for once. He does for only about two or three hours a night if he’s lucky.  Every night it’s something new.  Too hot, too cold, too much pain, not feeling anything at all and it would last all day until whatever it was faded out and Niall had a ten second reprieve before the next thing started in on him.

He can hear voices.  Something that sounds like cheering and it rattles around in his brain. He gets up and peers out into the hallway. It’s dark and the voices and cheering gets softer and then it goes silent.

Niall wants to cry. He wants to curl up in bed and fall asleep, but he can’t.  He closes his door, goes into the bathroom, and sits on the floor.  He’d take a shower but last time he did that the water was like pins and needles against his skin.

He thought about contacting Louis.  He could only do so much research by himself before Liam or Harry suspected that things are as bad as they are for him.  But Louis might know something if this is an after effect of what the other trickster did to him.  But that’s only if Louis didn’t try to kill him. 

The sound of the voices and cheers are softer than they were before now that he’s closed himself into the bathroom, but the feeling crawling over his skin won’t subside. His hands shake. They always shake. And that’s been the hardest thing for him to hide.

Niall somehow manages to fall asleep on the bathroom floor.  It’s exhaustion more than of his own will.  His dreams were worse than reality.  It’s all blood and fire and pain, and when Niall wakes up with the feeling of cold tile against his face, he hears something out in his room.

He looks at the clock on the wall of the bathroom…it’s 2:48 in the morning.  Niall doesn’t know if he’s more shocked that he slept for that long or that it sounds like someone is in his room in the middle of the night.

Niall pulls himself up off the floor and very carefully opens the door leading into his bedroom. It’s dark aside from the bit of light coming from the bedside lamp, but even in that darkness he can tell that no one is out there. 

Niall sighs.  The pain is one thing, but now he’s hearing things that aren’t there. 

He walks out into the room and sits down on the floor, leaning against the side of his bed.

“You really don’t look well, mate,” he hears a familiar yet impossible voice say.

Niall looks up. He can’t believe his eyes at first. “Z-Zayn?” he chokes out.

Zayn gives Niall a small smile before he joins him on the floor.  It’s the same face that Niall saw back at the hospital; all dark hair and brooding features.

“You’re really mucking things up here, Nialler,” Zayn says in a soft voice.  “Why won’t you tell Liam what’s going on with you? You know he cares about you and he might be able to help.”

Niall shakes his head.  “He doesn’t need to worry about me.”

“Mate, he’s doing that anyway,” Zayn counters.  “He can’t help you unless you’re honest with him.”

“I don’t want him to have to help me.  He still feels bad about not being able to help me with everything before after you—.” Niall cuts himself off. “He knows I wouldn’t be here if Harry hadn’t of showed up, but I can’t tell Harry any of this because if he really knew how much pain I was in, he’d kill himself if it helped me.”

“You don’t need that angel, Niall.  He might have helped you before, but now he’s just extra baggage. You don’t need him here, you have Liam. Harry can’t die from taking your pain away.  You’d need an angel blade to kill him.” Zayn looks at Niall with soft eyes.  “He shouldn’t even be here anymore. You were just an order to be followed when he stopped you. He doesn’t care about you, Niall, he can’t.  They’re not programed that way.  So forget about him, focus on getting back to the way things used to be.  Go to Liam and let him know what’s going on.”

“I don’t want Harry to leave…” Niall says quietly.

Zayn sighs. “You should’ve never gotten attached to him, Niall.  He can’t stay here.  The other angels will find out what he’s doing and he’ll have to leave anyway.  Just talk to Liam. Don’t push him away. You’ve gone soft since I’ve been gone. Letting the angel live here and saving that trickster. You’ve lost yourself.  You’re a hunter, Niall, and so is Liam.  Get back to doing what you’re meant to be doing.” Zayn smiles at Niall and stands up. “I’ve really missed you, Nialler.”

“I miss you too,” Niall says looking up at Zayn.

“Get things back to the way they were,” Zayn says walking toward the door. 

Niall looks down at his hands for a moment and before he can say anything, he looks up and Zayn is gone. The room feels empty again and the pain comes sweeping over him like a wave.

 

 

Niall goes downstairs around 6am and finds Liam sitting at the counter eating a bowl of cereal while skimming through some old book from the study.  He walks down the hall to the study.  He stands there for a moment staring at the books on the shelves until he pulls one out and goes back down the hall to the kitchen

Niall sits down next to Liam without saying anything, setting the book on the counter, and pours his own bowl of cereal finishing the bag, and he catches the small smile tugging at the corner of Liam’s lips before he goes back to flipping through the book.

There’s a map sticking out from underneath the book that Niall slides out and opens up.

The map has eight red dots scattered all around the eastern part of the United States.

“What’s this?” Niall asks.

“I’ve been keeping track of all the missing hunters and where they were last seen,” Liam says putting a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

“Missing hunters?” Niall questions.  “I thought it was just Rory and Justin?’

Liam stops and looks at Niall curiously. “Niall, I asked you yesterday if you’d heard from Josh or Jon…”

“What do they have to do with anything?” Niall says in a defensive manner.

Liam stares back at Niall. “I honestly can’t tell if you’re messing with me right now…”

“Liam, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Niall says.

“Josh and Jon are missing, Niall,” Liam says pointedly. “You really don’t remember me telling you this yesterday?” Niall shakes his head and Liam pulls a piece of paper out of the front of the book he’s reading and hands it to Niall. “There are eight that I know of at this point. Rory and Justin, Basil, Preston, Alberto, Paddy, and now Josh and Jon. Sandy and Dan have put cases on hold and are working on trying to find them and I’m trying to help them by figuring out what might be taking all these hunters, because if we don’t figure this out, we might be next, not to mention what might’ve come of the others.”

Liam takes the paper from Niall and puts it back in the book. 

“I’ve asked Harry to help, but he hasn’t had much luck,” Liam says.

Niall almost freezes at the mention of Harry’s name and he doesn’t know why. The name leaves a bitter taste in Niall’s mouth and he gets up from his seat, taking his bowl of cereal with him, only to dump it into the trash before setting the empty bowl in the sink.

“Niall…” Liam says softly and Niall pauses at the threshold. “I don’t know what’s going on with you lately, but I want to help with whatever it is.  I care about what’s going on with you. Even if for some reason you think I don’t…I do.”

Niall smiles, though Liam can’t see it. “That’s what Zayn said…”

Liam’s head cocks to the side. “What?”

Niall turns and looks at Liam; a softness in Niall’s face that Liam hasn’t seen in a long time.  “Zayn said that I should talk to you about what’s going on with me and that you just want to help because you care…”

Liam gets up from his seat. “Niall, when did Zayn say that to you?”

“Just last night,” Niall says nonchalantly, unfazed by Liam’s confusion. “I’m going to go up and take a shower.” Niall gets up and grabs his book, but Liam reaches out and stops him.

“Niall, what’s going on? What’s this book?” Liam asks, but he takes the book from Niall.

“ _Angels of the Lord_ ,” Liam reads the title of the book before Niall snatches it back from him.

Liam doesn’t know what to say or do in that moment and he lets Niall leave. 

As soon as he hears the door close upstairs, Liam closes his eyes. “Harry, I need you here right now,” he whispers softly and within moments the soft sound of wind erupts and Harry is standing right in front of Liam.

“What’s wrong? Why did you pray for me?” Harry asks with a bit of worry in his voice.

“Something’s wrong with Niall,” Liam says and he starts walking up the stairs and Harry follows after him.  Liam goes into his room and grabs the EMF meter from one of the bags in his closet and goes across the hall to Niall’s room.

Liam gets to Niall’s bedroom door and opens it as quietly as he possibly can.  He looks around but the room is empty and the bathroom door is closed.  Liam hears the shower start up and he enters the room.

He turns on the EMF meter and quietly moves around the room. The meter stays dormant and doesn’t budge at all.

“Liam, what’s going on?” Harry whispers. 

“Can you sense anything here?” Liam says abruptly.  “A ghost, demon, shapeshifter…anything that shouldn’t be here?”

Harry looks at Liam for a moment before he puts his hands out taking in the energy of the room. “I don’t feel anything…”

Liam shakes his head looking around frantically.

“What’s going on with Niall? Why are we in his room?” Harry asks.

Liam closes his eyes for a moment trying not to let the tears escape his eyes. He looks at Harry. “Niall said that he talked to Zayn last night…”

“As in like—”

“He had a conversation with our dead best friend, yeah,” Liam says.  “And he doesn’t seem fazed by it at all, like it was the most normal thing to happen.”  Liam wipes his face.  “Are you positive there’s nothing here?”

Harry looks back at him. “Liam, there’s nothing here and besides, there is warding all over this house that wouldn’t allow a ghost or demon to even enter this place…there’s nothing here. It’s just you, me, and Niall.”

Liam looks around the room for a moment. “That’s even worse, isn’t it?” Liam says. “If nothing is here or ever was here that just leaves one thing. It means that it’s not anything supernatural and it’s just Niall.”

Liam walks out of the room and waits for Harry before he quietly closes the door behind them. 

Liam’s face looks pale and blank as he walks downstairs and down to the study.  Only a moment later, he allows himself to collapse and sits on the floor, leaning against the wall with his head in his hands.

“What the hell is happening, Harry?”

Harry sits down beside him.

“How did this happen to him? Why does everything bad happen to him? What am I supposed to do to help him this time?” Liam finally looks at Harry.  His eyes are already red and tears are running down his face. “It wasn’t always like this, you know?” Liam starts to say.  “We were all in hospital at some point with what we do, but this? Maybe it was all too much. Maybe I pushed him too hard after what happened with Zayn and then this stupid trickster…”

“It’s not your fault, Liam,” Harry says softly.  “There could be a hundred explanations for what Niall thought he saw. We both know he hasn’t been sleeping much lately, so maybe that’s why he’s seeing things.”

“Him saying that he saw Zayn…it was the most at ease I’ve seen him in weeks.”

Harry stays quiet beside him.  The water turns off upstairs and Harry watches as Liam tries to pull himself together and get up off the floor.  “Whatever it is…we can’t help him by sitting on the floor,” Liam says offering a hand to Harry to help him up.

Harry takes Liam’s hand and gets to his feet.

“No matter what it takes we are going to help him and that’s it,” Liam says and he pulls a book from the bookshelf, brings it over to the desk, sits down, and starts flipping through it.

“A book might not be able to fix this, Liam,” Harry says softly.

“Niall’s not crazy, Harry. If something is going on with him then it’s gotta be because of the job.  For all I know, this is some weird after effect from the trickster.”  Liam goes back to his book and Harry gets the idea that the conversation is over.

 

 

After three days of pouring over the books in the study, Liam still hasn’t been able to find anything to help Niall.  And what makes that worse is that Niall’s been checking out and forgetting things even more than before. 

Niall’s been locking himself up in his room, especially any time that Harry is at the house, which Liam finds odd since the two could hardly be separated a few weeks ago.  Niall came down to the study early in the morning and grabbed some herbs and whatnot from the storage cabinet in there and disappeared back upstairs without a word.

Liam’s stomach growls and he closes the book laid out in front of him and goes into the kitchen to find something to eat.  Maybe an actual meal would do them some good, but when Liam opens the refrigerator, it’s almost empty aside from a jar of pickles and a thing of mayonnaise, and the freezer isn’t much better.

Liam’s spent so much time worrying about helping Niall that he’d forgotten to go grocery shopping, which made him wonder what Niall has been eating lately, if anything at all.

Liam sighs and closes the fridge door. Harry’s sitting in the living room watching infomercials when Liam walks out into the hallway. 

He walks up the stairs and lightly knocks on Niall’s door.  There’s no answer so Liam quietly opens the door and sees Niall digging through his closet.

“Hey uh…” Liam starts to say, but Niall jumps at the sound of his voice; a bag falls off the shelf and almost hits Niall in the face.

“Oh sorry,” Liam says stepping forward.  “Didn’t mean to startle you.  I just came up to let you know that I was going to make a quick run to the store.  We’re basically out of food.  Should only be like two hours tops.”

“That’s fine,” Niall says but he doesn’t face Liam and doesn’t move.

“What’re you looking for in there?” Liam asks.

“My silver knife,” Niall replies flatly.

“Oh uh…might be in your bag from the case with the trickster…we never really got the chance to unpack from that.”  Liam stands there a moment seeing if Niall will reply, but he doesn’t. “Alright well I’ll be back in a bit. Harry’s downstairs if you need anything.”

“That’s fine,” Niall says in a lighter tone and he turns toward Liam.  “I’m probably going to take a nap or something anyway.”

“Probably a good idea,” Liam says watching for anything off in Niall face or demeanor.  “Text me if you think of something you need from the shop, yeah?”

“Will do,” Niall says and he pulls his silver knife out of one of the bags on the floor.

“Why were you looking for that anyway?” Liam asks when he gets to the door, his curiosity and worry getting the best of him.

“I like keeping one next to my bed just in case.” Niall shrugs.

Liam nods.  That isn’t weird.  Liam does the same thing.

He gives Niall a quick wave before he closes the door and heads back down the stairs.  Liam picks up the keys that sit in a drawer in the hallway.

“Going somewhere?” Harry says behind him.

“Heading to the shop,” Liam says putting on his jacket. “Niall’s going to try taking a nap.  I should be back in about two hours, so if you could just check in on him at some point that would be helpful.”

“Consider it done,” Harry says. 

Liam leaves and Harry goes back to watching TV.  He learned a lot watching TV and he found it much more entertaining than whenever Niall put the Golf Channel on.  Harry can’t remember when Niall stayed in the same room with him for longer than a minute. It was probably the case with the trickster.  Harry misses hanging out with Niall, but he can’t figure out why Niall is avoiding him. 

Harry gets text from Liam about an hour and a half later that he’s on his way back from the store.  Harry liked texting.  He liked the way that the humans communicated with each other; it seemed efficient. 

Harry figures he should check on Niall and gets up from the couch when he hears a loud thud upstairs that seemed to come from Niall’s room above him.

Harry walks up the stairs.   He knocks at Niall’s door but doesn’t get a response.  He opens the door and peeks in.  The room is dark aside from the light on the next to the empty bed. 

“Niall?” Harry says stepping further into the room.  Harry looks around but doesn’t see anything. “Niall, are you in here?” Harry walks in and feels along the wall for the light switch, but when he flips it up, nothing happens.  “Niall?” Harry bumps in the desk. He takes out his phone and shines in over the area.  A book lay open on the desk.  Harry skims the page. It’s all about angels…mainly on how to hurt them. Harry recognizes the drawing of an angel blade and beside it the ingredients for turning a silver knife into a weapon against an angel.  Non-lethal, but Harry can’t imagine why Niall would have this in his room.

Harry puts his phone back in his pocket. The room is excruciatingly quiet. He can’t feel a presence in the room at all…or even the entire house. 

Harry sighs and suddenly something hits him over the head, making him fall to the ground.  He can tell something is there in the darkness with him, but he can’t feel it.

The figure grabs Harry and hits him over and over until Harry finally pushes it away.  It’s strong…almost stronger than Harry. 

Harry collects himself and when he looks up, in the dim light from the nightstand, he can see the figure in profile, only it’s not a figure at all...

“Niall?” Harry questions just before Niall lunges at him with a knife this time.  Harry tries to dodge the blade as best he can without hurting Niall.  “What are you doing? Niall stop! It’s me, Harry!”  But Niall keeps coming after him. 

Niall eyes catching the light.  He doesn’t even look like Niall.  He looks void of all emotions except rage and anger. 

Harry doesn’t want to hurt Niall, but he’s giving him no choice.  As Niall lunges again.  Harry grabs him by the arms.  Moments later a sharp shooting pain rolls through Harry’s hands making him release his hold. 

“Niall stop!” Harry yells.

Niall charges Harry, throwing him against the wall, putting the blade to Harry’s throat and the only thing keeping Niall from plunging it into Harry’s neck is the hand Harry has holding Niall back.  The pain floods through Harry, it hurts like nothing else he’s ever felt, but he knows he can’t let go.

“Niall!” Harry practically screams.

“Give me the blade!” Niall says, only it doesn’t sound like Niall, it sounds like someone else using Niall’s voice.

Harry knows exactly what he’s talking about, but he can’t hand that over.  A regular blade will do some major damage, but that blade is the only thing that can kill an angel. 

“Niall stop! This isn’t you!”

Niall takes that as a refusal and throws Harry to the floor.  He begins hitting Harry over and over and Harry can’t muster the strength to push him away.  Every time Niall’s skin touches his, it’s like his own skin is on fire, burning and charring. 

Harry’s mind is hazy as Niall’s fists slam against his face. 

“Niall!” a voice calls out and quickly,  Harry can make out the blurry outline of Liam’s face as he tries to pull Niall away, but Niall’s elbow catches Liam’s face, sending him to the floor. But Liam isn’t giving up that easily and in an instant, he pulling on Niall again, blood pouring from his nose. 

“Niall stop!” Liam yells. Liam uses all his strength to pull Niall to the floor.  Straddling the Irishman, trying his best to pin Niall’s hands to the floor.  Niall fights against Liam with everything he’s got. “Niall!” The sound of Liam’s voice seems to echo throughout the house and suddenly, Niall’s arms and legs still.

The rage in Niall’s eyes disappears, he blinks and he looks at Liam with a horrified look on his face.

“L-Liam?” Niall says in a shaky voice.  It isn’t like before, it’s Niall’s voice this time. 

Liam gets off Niall and falls to the floor beside him, breathing heavily. 

The three of them lay there, confused and bloody for a moment, trying to catch their breath.

Liam crawls over to lean against the bed. “Hazza?” he says looking over at Harry, who’s still lying on the floor.  Liam wipes the blood from his nose and crawls over to Harry.

The angel tries to sit up. 

“Harry?” Liam says trying to help Harry sit up. “You alright, mate?”

Harry groans as he leans against the wall.  In the light from the nightstand, Liam can see only see partly how back Harry’s face is. 

“Niall?” Harry groans.

Liam looks over his shoulder just as Niall rolls over, kneeling on all fours. Niall’s breath is staggered and quickening by the second. When he gives up and sits leaning against the wall. Liam can tell how bad he is, entering into a full-blown panic attack.

“Niall?” Liam crawls over to him. He’s hesitant at first, but he places a gentle hand on Niall’s knee and Niall practically jumps away from him.

“Don’t…I don’t want to hurt you,” Niall mutters in between breaths.

“It’s okay,” Liam says softly. 

Niall pulls his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs, burying his face.  “What did I do?” Niall cries.  “I’m so sorry.” He breathes in heavily.  “I’m so sorry…”

 

Liam sits with Niall waiting for his breathing to even out again before he takes Niall into the bathroom and cleans him up. 

Niall’s knuckles are raw.  The blood on his hands is a combination of his own and Harry’s and Liam has to keep himself from puking every time he thinks about it. 

Liam wanted to help Harry first, but the angel insisted that he help Niall first, and Harry got to his feet, much to Liam’s dismay, went out of the room, and down the hall to his own room.

“What did I do, Liam?” Niall asks quietly.  “What did I do to Harry? To you?”

“I don’t know…” Liam says.  He wishes he had more to say to Niall.  He wishes that he had the answers, but for the life of him he didn’t know anything. If Niall didn’t know why he attacked Harry, than how could Liam? 

“Test me…” Niall says looking up at Liam. “Salt, holy water, iron, silver, all of it.”

“Niall, Harry said that nothing could get past the warding on the house…”

“Just do it, Liam. Please…you know as well as I do that one wrong thing and warding can be useless.” Niall looks at Liam with a sincere expression.  “Liam, please.  I feel like I’m losing control and I come out of it like it was some horrible dream. If it’s something supernatural, we’ll deal with it.”

“And what if it’s not?” Liam says.  He can’t look at Niall.

“Liam, if this is just me, we’ll deal with that too.” The tone in Niall’s voice catches Liam off guard like something more is implied in that statement.

Liam looks at Niall hoping he’s not serious.

“Liam, we’ve watched a lot of good hunters get locked up in some asylum, I don’t want that.  It I’m losing it, if I’m a danger to you guys then I’d rather put a bullet in me head than get put in a rubber room.”

Liam looks at Niall like he’s betrayed him and shakes his head.  “I can’t do that. And I’m not going to let you do that.”

“I won’t get locked up, Liam.”

“Maybe there’s something Harry can do…” Liam says.

“In the state he’s in? In the state I put him in?” Niall shakes his head. “I wouldn’t doubt it if he left and he’d be smart to do so.”

“Don’t say that.”

Niall takes the towel from Liam.  “I’ve got the rest of this, go check on Harry,” he says.

“Niall…”

“I’m not hurt, Liam. Harry might heal faster than we do, but he still might need your help.”

Liam sighs. “Alright…” Liam walks toward the bathroom door leading into Niall’s room.

“And make sure you both lock your doors tonight,” Niall says.

Liam pauses at the door for a moment before he carries on and goes down the hall to Harry’s room. 

“Hazza?” Liam says poking his head in the room.

Liam turns on the light and sees Harry digging through his closet.  “I couldn’t feel him in the room, Liam,” Harry says quickly. “I didn’t even know it was him at first…it wasn’t him.”  Liam catches a glimpse of Harry’s face and he feels like he might puke again. 

Harry’s entire face is covered in blood. His one eye is almost swollen shut and there’s three or four large cuts on his cheeks and above is eye. 

“And touching his skin was like being touched by the very fires in hell,” Harry says pointedly.  He looks like a madman.

“Harry, maybe you should sit down; we’ll get you cleaned up a bit,” Liam says but Harry ignores him. “What are you even looking for?”

Harry throws a bag onto the bed.  “He was looking for something…all angels have one, though I never told either of you about it.” Harry reaches into his the bag and pulls out a long silver blade.  “He wanted my angel blade…it wanted my angel blade,” Harry corrects himself.  “We’re supposed to keep them on us at all times, but I don’t unless I think I’ll need it.” 

Liam watches as Harry flips the blade and it disappears, but with a quick flick of his hand, the blade reappears.  “If it’s on me, no one can take it unless I take it out.”

Harry starts shoving everything back into the closet.

“Harry…talking with Niall, he said something,” Liam can’t say it; he thought that they’d gotten beyond all of this.  “If it turns out, for whatever reason that it is just him, Niall said that he’d rather take a bullet to the head than end up in a mental institute.”

Harry looks at Liam. “Why would he say that?”

Liam shakes his head. “He’s tired.  He doesn’t like the idea of being locked up like that.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Harry says.

It’s quiet for a moment when the two of them hear the front door open. 

Liam and Harry rush out of the room, running to Niall’s room to see that it’s empty.  Liam runs down the stairs, with Harry at his heels, and they run out the front door, but it’s completely dark out there aside from the light from the porch and the car is still there in the driveway. 

“Niall?” Liam calls out, but no one answers.  “Why would he leave? Can you tell where he went?”

Harry scans the area. “I can’t sense him.”

“What?” Liam says angrily.

“All I can sense is you and me, Liam…” Harry looks out into the darkness. “Niall’s gone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, comments are appreciated!!! Comments make me very happy haha (I read through this at 3am so the editing might not be perfect and I will read through it again when I have a chance again haha). 
> 
> xoxo  
> -Amy
> 
> This story has a few different story lines in it so I know it might get confusing at times, so idk if I to separate it into different sections and make it into a series...not sure, as of right now the 31 chapters are staying as is. (everything is outlined (has been since October 2015 haha) it's just a matter of getting the chapters written.)


	9. Lie Awake Only Hoping They're Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Liam have to find Niall before it's too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NaNoWriMo has been good for this fic haha. I've really invested in this and I hope you all are enjoying the story so far!
> 
> Chapter title from 1d's "Infinity" (which I played on a loop for about six hours straight while writing this chapter)

Liam steps forward, running down the front step to the driveway, but Harry quickly stops him.

“It’s pitch black out there, Liam, it’s not Niall,” Harry says in an almost angry tone.  His face still looks horrible, especially now that they’re outside; as if Harry is a villain from a horror movie.

“I talked to him.  It was him and he was terrified, Harry, I’m not leaving him alone out there!” Liam tries yanking himself out of Harry’s grip.

“He almost killed me, he hit you, and you really think the biggest danger is that he ran off by himself?” Harry retorts.

“He’s not thinking straight!” Liam yells. “He talked about killing himself again, Harry, and the longer we stand here fighting about it, the longer he’s out there on his own!”

Liam stalks off back to the house. He can feel the dull ache creep over his face where Niall elbowed him. He wipes his nose again, feeling the blood start to trickle down his lips.

“What are you going to do?” Harry asks, chasing after Liam.

“You’re going to try calling him, if he picks up, I can try and trace the call.” Liam walks down the hallway to the study and pulls out his laptop.  He grabs a tissue and tries getting the bleeding to stop.

Harry makes the call, but Niall doesn’t answer.  He even tries calling from Liam’s phone, but nothing.  Ten calls with no answer.

“What’s next?” Harry looks at Liam.  The blood on his face has dried and the swelling is already starting to go down, but he still doesn’t look very good.

“What’s next is that I contact the cellphone company and see if they can turn on the GPS on Niall’s phone.”

Liam’s on the phone with the cellphone company for a half an hour before he gets to an actual person. He uses fake FBI credentials to get the information, while Harry sits there listening to the police scanner trying to find anything that sounds like it could be Niall. Liam at least got him to clean up a bit, while he was on hold with the phone company, but there were still bruises and cuts all across Harry’s face.

Liam couldn’t figure out how Harry was so quick to believe the worst about Niall, but Liam has the utmost belief that Niall is still Niall. 

“Alright, thank you,” Liam says on the phone and he hangs up.  He flips through his phone, pulling up what he needs, and in moments, he has the location of Niall’s phone.  “I’ve got him.  Looks like he’s near Main Street.” Liam looks at Harry who’s very intently listening to the police scanner. “Harry?”

“Is Roland’s Market anywhere near Main Street?” Harry asks looking up at Liam.

“Yeah, it’s along the strip there…”

Harry takes off the headphones. “We have to go now,” he says quickly.

“What’s going on?” Liam starts gathering up things they’re need. He grabs a set of handcuffs, rope, and the Taser they keep for certain monsters.  He doesn’t want to hurt Niall, but Harry is right, Niall really did some damage on him. 

“There were reports of a young blond guy starting some sort of brawl in the parking lot,” Harry says as they go out to the car. 

“GPS still has him in the area, so hopefully he’s still got his phone on him.”

Liam rips out of the driveway and down the road toward town.  The house is in the middle of nowhere and it was a good twenty-minute drive to town.  Liam just prays that they get there in time.

Liam pulls into the parking lot of Roland’s Market, grabbing his fake FBI badge and handing another one to Harry. “Just follow my lead,” Liam says getting out of the car and Harry follows suit. Police cars are already there; the red and blue lights swirling around.  The paramedics are loading someone into an ambulance and Liam walks up, flashing his badge to the police officer supervising the whole thing. 

“What’s FBI doing here?” the officer responds.

“We tracked a suspect to this area,” Liam lies.

“Well, if it’s just the two of you, god’s speed to you.  But by the looks of it,” the officer glances at Harry, “You’ve already had a run in with the guy. According to witnesses, the perp initiated the attack.  Wasn’t provoked in anyway.  Just a kid too. Blond hair, bit lanky.  To be honest, if ten other people hadn’t of seen it, I wouldn’t believe it.  The kid just went wild. So if you can give us any information to help track him down, it’d be a big help.”

“Do you know if he left on foot?” Liam asks.

“Well, everyone’s saying that he rolled up here in that pickup truck,” the officer says pointing to a blue Chevy parked cooked near the road. “Plates came back stolen, just about forty-five minutes ago or so. But as soon as the kid was done with them, he ran off that way.  I’ve got officers sweeping the area.”

“If any of them do find him give me a call,” Liam says and he hands the officer a business card with Liam’s cell number on it.

“So, what up with this kid? Steroids? PCP?”

Liam sees Harry about to say something, but he stops him.

“Schizophrenia. We think he got off his meds,” Liam says and he hates saying it. Maybe it isn’t Niall, but he couldn’t take the chance if Niall was still in there somewhere. “Tasers would be best if force is needed.”  Liam tries to force the emotion out of his voice when he says it.  

Liam walks back to the car and pulls out his phone again. 

“Why didn’t you tell them the truth?” Harry asks.  “He could hurt one of them, Liam.”

“I know that, but telling them he might be possessed or something like that would only get us locked up along with him. But telling them to use non-lethal force against a Schizophrenic, who’s off his meds, might save Niall’s life.”

“Where does it say he is?” Harry looks over Liam’s shoulder at the phone. 

The GPS isn’t as accurate as Liam would hope but it was enough to know that Niall was moving north toward the state park.

Liam gets in the car, setting the phone in one of the cup holders before he pulls back onto the road and heads north toward the state park.

 

Liam pulls in at the trailhead.  There are two other vehicles parked there, a green SUV and a Honda civic. 

Liam grabs a couple flashlights and hands one to Harry before they start down the trail. 

After a few minutes of walking up the trail, Harry finally speaks.

“Why are you so sure this is still Niall? All the things you’ve seen; revenants, demons, shapeshifters…it could easily be anyone of those.” Harry looks at Liam as they make their way along the more narrow part of the path.

“The warding at the house rules out any of that,” Liam says. “Plus, Niall wears an anti-possession necklace.”

“There isn’t any warding that I know of for shapeshifters…” Harry says quietly.

“The hunter that owns that house…his dad was really paranoid about stuff like that, all the silverware in the house is actual silver. When Niall told me about seeing Zayn, he used one of the spoons from the kitchen.”

“He was too strong, Liam. Way too strong for that to just be Niall.”

Liam stops dead in his tracks and looks at Harry. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Harry. If you want me to say that it’s a possibility that I didn’t lie to that officer and Niall really has had some mental break then sure…There is a complete possibility that this whole fucking thing ends with me dragging Niall into the nut house even though that’s the last thing that he wanted.” Liam turns and starts walking. “You came here to help him, but right now you’ve gotta help me help him. I’m not losing another one of my friends.”

Liam continues up the path and Harry follows. 

Liam wonders if they’re even going in the right direction and he looks down at his phone, which makes it seem like they’re getting close.  It’s not until Harry trips on something in the pathway that anything seems off. 

Liam shines the light on the path to see what it was that Harry tripped over. A backpack sits on the pathway, the one strap torn off. Liam looks back at the GPS and it almost seems like they’re right on top of Niall.

Liam bends down and searches the ground, and sure enough, he finds Niall’s phone next to the path in the weeds. 

“If that’s Niall’s phone, then where’s Niall?” Harry asks.

“The better question is where’s the person that belongs to this backpack? If Niall’s phone is here then I can only guess that he lost it during a struggle…”

“Would he kill them?” Harry asks.

“I have no clue.” Liam stands up, shoving Niall’s phone in his own pocket before he goes at an increased pace.

They make it another thirty yards up the path when they spot a light ahead.  Liam takes out his Taser and continues on toward the light. 

They come up on the campground, a small fire going and the place is an absolute mess. A loud noise comes from the across the way and Liam goes toward it. 

They can see a figure huddled in the dark; arms wrapped around his legs. Liam gets closer when he finally recognizes him.

“Niall?” Liam says softly and Niall looks up at him; eyes filled with tears, hands shaking.

“What did I do?” Niall asks in a shaky voice.

“Niall, where are the people that were here?” Liam says, stepping closer to Niall.

“They took off,” Niall says. “I remember feeling this pain and the next thing I know, I’m in the middle of the woods and all these people are yelling and running away.” 

Liam crouches down next to Niall and that’s when he sees the burn mark on Niall’s forearm. 

“Niall, we need to get you out of here. The police are looking for you and—”

“I’ve lost it, haven’t I?” Niall says looking at Liam with sad eyes. “I’ve hurt people…”

Liam has to muster everything in him not to cry.  “We’re going to get you somewhere safe,” he says. “We’re going to get you the help you need, okay? I’m not giving up on you.”

“I’m tired, Liam,” Niall whispers and Liam gets the idea that it’s not the kind of tired that sleep can fix. 

Finding Niall like this reminded him of the way things were after Zayn died and before Harry showed up. Niall seemed so broken then, and it seems even worse now.  Niall was going to kill himself then, and said he’d do it now, if Liam couldn’t find a way to help him.

“Come on,” Liam says and he helps Niall to his feet. Liam brings Niall back down to the car, with Harry following at a safe distance.

When the get to the trailhead and to the car, Liam’s happy to see that the other two vehicles that were there before are now gone, meaning that the people who Niall attacked had made it back and left.

Liam puts Niall in the backseat, but Harry stays on the passenger’s side. Liam pulls onto the road and starts driving. They hit the main road and see the police cars leaving the Roland’s Market parking lot and heading out toward the state park. Liam figures that the people that were out there must have called 911 about what happened.

Liam drives and Niall falls asleep in the backseat.  It’s not until Liam drives past the road to the house that Harry looks at him.

“Where are you going?” Harry says softly so that he doesn’t wake Niall.

“I can’t help him, Harry,” Liam says, keeping his eyes on the road. “I don’t know how to help him. If this isn’t anything supernatural or even if it is…I can’t keep Niall or anybody else safe.”

Harry doesn’t ask any more questions.  Liam feels numb.  He looks in the rearview mirror and sees Niall asleep in the backseat. Niall looks so calm.  He looks like Niall.

About twenty minutes later, Liam pulls the car over.  It’s late enough in the evening that there aren’t many other cars on the road.

“What are doing?” Harry asks when Liam grabs his phone and opens his door.

“Just keep an eye on him. I have to make a call.” Liam gets out of the car, careful not to slam the door.  He hates it, but in all fairness, a sleeping Niall is a Niall that isn’t going to try to kill either of them.

Liam walks up the road a ways and Harry can see him talking on the phone to someone, but his attention quickly goes to Niall sleeping in the backseat. 

It’s like watching a killer puppy sleep.  Niall could be a bit of a grouch, which Harry knew is because of all the shitty things that have happened to him, because sometimes, Niall is the happiest and funniest person that Harry knows…not that he knows many people, but he hates feeling like Niall is a time bomb that could go off at any second and kill them.

Whatever is going on with Niall, based on the look in his eyes when he attacked Harry, it’s making him less Niall.  Something is taking over in Niall mind and it kills Harry that he doesn’t know what it is…but maybe Liam is right. Maybe it’s not supernatural at all.

Liam comes back to the car, tossing his phone back into the center console, before he starts the car and pulls back onto the road. 

They drive for a while before Liam pulls up to the curb at a place that Harry doesn’t recognize.  It looks similar to the place he went with Niall for his physical therapy, but something seemed off about it. It gave Harry a bad feeling.

Liam gets out, walks around the car to Niall’s side where he sits behind Harry in the back seat.  Liam opens the door and kneels down before he places a gentle hand on Niall’s shoulder. 

“Nialler?” Liam says softly, and it puts him at ease when Niall opens his eyes and a small smile pull on the corner of Niall’s lips.

“Where are we?” Niall rubs his eyes, looking around confused.

Harry gets out of the car and stands a few paces behind Liam. 

“Had to make a quick stop for something, come on,” Liam says helping Niall out of the car. He quickly leads Niall through the front doors.  “You and Harry can have a seat over there while I talk to the receptionist, alright?” Liam says pointing at the small waiting room area. 

Niall complies and Harry gives Liam a curious look before he follows him over.

Liam walks up to the front desk where a middle-aged dark haired woman sits behind a computer.

“Uh, my name’s Liam uh…Liam Dwyer,” he says when the woman looks up at him. “I called earlier.”

“Right,” she says and she shuffles through some paperwork before he hands a clipboard over to Liam. “Just fill this out and someone will be out shortly.”

Liam doesn’t go over to the other two to fill out the forms, he stands at the desk doing them, but the receptionist gives him a sad look as if she understands what is rolling around in his mind.  He looks over his shoulder at Niall.  He looks tired.  Harry doesn’t look much better, but the two of them break Liam’s heart in an instant.  He sees Niall say something to Harry, and for a moment, Harry smiles.  In any other situation it would make Liam smile too, but it doesn’t. It can’t, with what he about to do.

Liam finishes the forms and hands them to the receptionist and she enters the information into the system.  Harry gets up and walks over to Liam almost as soon as Liam turns around.

“What are we doing here, Liam? What’s going on?” Harry whispers.

Niall comes over to them, with the same question written on his face, but at the same moment, two larger men dressed in white scrubs come into the room from the locked double doors.

“Niall James?” the one man reads off a paper.

Niall looks from the man to Liam. “Liam, what’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry, Niall,” Liam says in a shaky voice.

“Sorry for what?” Niall asks in a more panicked tone. “What is this place?”

The two men come up to Niall and everything seems to click into place for him.

“No…” Niall says.  He looks at Liam. “No…I told you I didn’t want this.” Niall backs away from everyone. Niall shakes his head trying to wrap his head around what’s happening. “I told you I’d rather die. I’m not staying here.”  Niall looks from Liam to Harry, but the two men grab him from either side. “No!” Niall shouts.

“Niall, I’m so sorry. I love you,” Liam says quietly. He can’t look at Niall as they usher him to the double doors.

“If you loved me, you’d let me go! Just let me go, Liam!” Niall shouts. “Liam!” Niall fights against the men. “Harry, please! Just let me go! Let me die!” he pleads. “If you love me, let me go!” The two men get Niall to the doors. “Liam!” Niall shouts before he disappears through the doors.

The sound of Niall’s voice echoes in Liam’s mind.

“What did you do?” Harry says in disbelief.

Liam feels like he’s going to vomit. He clenches his fists to try to keep his hands from shaking. Liam can’t look at Harry right now. He’s afraid to. He’s afraid to see the look on Harry’s face. The same look of betrayal that Niall had.

“Mr. Dwyer?” the receptionist says forcing Liam to be in the moment.  “Dr. Lenard will be out in a moment. She’d like to talk with you before you go.”

Liam nods.

“Do you really think this was the best option for Niall?” Harry asks when they sit in the waiting area.

“What was I supposed to do, Harry? He was getting out of control. He hurt people,” Liam says pointedly. “He can beat up on me all he wants, but beyond that…Niall…the real Niall helps people. He cares about them. What he did…that wasn’t Niall.” Liam sighs. “He’s a danger to other people and himself.”

They both look up when a woman comes from a different door to the side near reception.  “Mr. Dwyer?” she asks looking at Liam and Harry.

Liam stands and steps forward and shakes the doctor’s hand. “And may I ask who this is?” she say looking at Harry and she shakes his hand.

“This is Harry. He’s a friend,” Liam says. They both follower her back through the door she came from where there are a few different offices. She closes the door behind them when they walk into her office.  “Is Niall okay?” Liam asks timidly.

“He had to be sedated, but he is resting comfortably now,” Dr. Lenard says.  “I’m sure that this isn’t easy for you,” she says and gestures for them to take a seat in the chairs situated in front of her desk.

She sits down and pulls something up on her computer while the two boys get situated.

 “I know it’s late, but I wanted to talk with you about some of the things you wrote on Niall’s form.” Dr. Lenard looks at them over the top of her black rimmed glasses.  She has soft facial features and dark red hair.  “You mentioned that he was hallucinating and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that a little more so we know what kind of psychosis we are dealing with so we can give him the proper help.”

The last thing Liam wants to do right now is talk about everything that is wrong with his best friend, but he has to believe that these people can help Niall, because if they can’t, he locked Niall up here for nothing.

“He said he talked to our friend Zayn,” Liam says.

Dr. Lenard looks at him curiously.

“Zayn passed away in September…” the worlds are like sand on his tongue. “Niall thought it was his fault.  He blamed himself for what happened.”

“May I ask how Niall handled the death?” Dr. Lenard asks after she types something into the computer.

“A little over a month after, Niall was going to kill himself. Harry stopped him,” Liam says bluntly.  “Things got better, then he’d just zone out…I’d have conversations with him and he’d forget that we even talked.”

“And when did the violent outbursts start?”

Liam thinks for a moment. “We noticed something was off in February. He got a little carried away with something but we thought it was about Zayn. Three days ago was when he told me he talked to Zayn.  Then he attacked Harry and tried to kill him. I pulled him off and it was like he didn’t even know what he was doing.”

“And when did that occur?”

“Today,” Harry cuts in in a dull voice.

Dr. Lenard looks up at Harry and Liam thinks that for the first time, she really sees all the marks on Harry’s face.

“One of the orderlies mentioned Niall saying to you that he told you he’d rather die and that you should just let him go…did you have a conversation with him on this topic?”

Liam gives a small nod. “After he attacked Harry, he said that if it was all in his head, he’d rather put a bullet in his head than go into a mental institution.”

Dr. Lenard types more into the computer. “What about—”

“Look,” Liam interjects. “A few months ago, Niall was perfectly healthy, perfectly sane, and ever since our best mate died he’s lost his way a bit. If you want me to sit here and talk more about how wrong things have gone for him then forget it! I get that you are just trying to help him in the best possible way but I don’t know why this is happening! I don’t know when I stopped noticing how much pain he was in or how lost he was…”

Dr. Lenard gives a light nod. “Perfectly understandable,” she says.  “I will do my best to help Niall.”

Liam stands up and Harry follows him. The pleasantries are over. Liam just wants to be alone.  He wants to go back before he, Niall, and Zayn even went their separate ways.

Liam gets outside the building where the car is still parked next to the curb.

“Are you sure we should leave?” Harry says when they get into the car.

“There’s nothing more we can do, Harry,” Liam says quietly.  “Niall’s in better hands now.”

 

They get back to the house and Liam goes straight upstairs to his room and locks the door.  He falls to the floor almost immediately. His entire body shakes and he cries for the first time since all this started.

There’s a light knock at the door.

“Liam?” Harry’s muffled voice comes from the other side.

“Just give me a minute, Harry,” Liam says.

“Liam, I don’t think you should be alone right now…”

“Just give me a minute!” Liam says more forcefully. He doesn’t mean to lash out at Harry, but the only thing he wants right now is for Niall to be okay.

Liam can hear Harry’s footsteps as he backs away from the door and walks across the hall to his own room. The door closes a little louder than usual, but Liam doesn’t take an offense.

Harry cares about Niall too and Liam thinks that somewhere along the line, he kind of forgot that. Harry was so insistent that Niall was dangerous and he wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t make it any easier. Maybe after Liam is done convincing himself that he did the right thing, he can try to convince Harry as well.

 

Liam wakes up the next morning and everything feels like a dream. It’s not until he walks downstairs and finds the house empty that he remembers what happened the night before. Niall hasn’t even been gone for a day and Liam already misses him.

Niall had been distant the last couple of weeks and he wasn’t exactly himself, but what Liam missed was the real Niall. 

Liam winces at that thought. He didn’t even know what the real Niall means.  Maybe the version of Niall that attacked Harry was just as much the same Niall that sat on the couch for hours watching golf.

Liam walks into the kitchen and hears the sound of wind behind him.

“Where have you been?” Liam says dryly.

“You said you needed a minute,” Harry says quietly.

Liam sighs and looks at the clock on the microwave. “It’s been like ten hours, mate,” Liam says with a touch of lightness in his voice.

“Seemed like you needed more than just a minute,” Harry says following Liam into the kitchen.  “How are you feeling?”

Liam takes a bowl from the cupboard and gives a small laugh. “Thanks for putting the shopping away, by the way,” he says avoiding Harry’s question.

“Liam…” Harry starts to say.

“Harry, can we just not mention Niall for a little while? I’m fine…just leave it at that, yeah?” Liam looks at Harry who gives a small nod.  Liam pours himself some cereal and sits at the counter.  “If you’ve got something else to do…I know your orders weren’t about protecting me, so…”

Harry shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “Liam, don’t think because my original orders were to help Niall, that I don’t care about you too.  The moment I got those orders, my job was to protect you both as far as I’m concerned. You’re my friend too.”

Harry disappears and Liam doesn’t think he’s even in the house anymore until he hears someone moving around upstairs.  Liam just hopes that it is Harry and not someone waiting to kill him…it feels like one is just as likely as the next nowadays.

Liam’s phone goes off on the counter and Dan’s name pops up on the screen so he puts it on speaker while he finishes his breakfast.

“Still no sign of Josh and Jon,” Dan says. “Tried getting hold of Niall earlier, but it went straight to voicemail. Just making sure everything’s alright.”

Liam doesn’t know what to say if he’s being honest. He never thought he’d have to tell anyone about where Niall is and it hits him in that moment that depending on what happens with Niall, that Liam’s going to have to call Niall’s dad.

“Niall’s not doing well,” Liam says. “There was a bit of an incident.”

“How bad is it? Is he going to be okay?” Dan asks.

“Physically he’s fine, it’s his…” Liam doesn’t know how to say it. “He’s taking some time off…getting the help he needs.”

“Well, tell him we’re here if he needs us. Same goes to you too, Liam.”

Liam leaves it at that. He wants to keep trying to find Josh and Jon and maybe it will keep his mind off of Niall for a while.   It’s hard explaining things to Dan and Sandy. They’re all friends but not extremely close friends. Liam doesn’t know how to tell them about Niall or how to tell them about Harry and the fact that they’ve been living with an angel for the last few months.  It’s all gotten too complicated and Liam figured that there was nothing that Dan or Sandy could do so it wasn’t any of their business.

 

It’s too quiet in the house and Liam’s not sure if it’s a situation of no news is good news or not.  Liam can’t find anything that will help them locate Josh and Jon or Rory and Justin.  He started looking deeper into the cases they were working on when they disappeared, but by what Dan and Sandy know, all of them got to a town to work a case but never came back or checked in with anyone. 

Liam looks into the towns that the cases were in and he notices the way the lack of news coincides with the time of their disappearances, as if the problem in the town magically went away overnight along with the hunters.

The cases themselves were thin to begin with. Liam could make a list a mile long of all the things that it could’ve been.

 

It’s been three days without Niall.

Liam tries not to think about him, but it’s hard when Liam sees Bobby Horan’s name pop up on his phones. He watches it vibrate on the desk for a moment, trying to figure out what he’s going to say to Niall’s dad before he answers it, but his brain comes up blank and all the guilt he’s been pushing down comes right back. Flooding his mind as if a dam collapsed in his head.

Liam answers the call and regrets it almost immediately, because the sound of Bobby’s voice brings back memories from after Zayn died and Niall was going to kill himself.

“Is he alright?” Bobby asks in a panicked tone.

Liam has to pull himself together in a split second before he answers. “He’s alright…” Liam replies.

“Where is he? I’ve been trying to get a hold of him the last couple of days and I tried calling you and the line was busy. I just…I got worried that something might’ve happened and—” Bobby cuts himself off.

“Things have been hectic around here,” Liam says quietly. “Been on the phone helping Dan and Sandy with something.”

“That’s understandable,” Bobby says. “Is Niall there? Can I talk to him?”

Liam’s hands begin to shake making the phone shake against his ear. “He’s not here.” This is it. This is the moment when Liam has to decide what he’s going to tell Niall’s dad.  “He’s taking some time off,” Liam says. “He said something about going on a golf retreat or something, probably turned his phone off.”

“You’re sure he’s okay though?” Bobby asks.

Liam pulls in a deep breath. “Yeah, absolutely,” Liam tries to add some lightness to his voice to make it more convincing.

“Well, it sounds like something he would do…always hated being cooped up inside for too long,” Bobby laughs. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it. If you talk to him tell him I called and that I love him.”

“Of course. I’ll make sure to pass on the message,” Liam replies.

As soon as he hangs up the phone, he feels like he’s going to be sick. “Harry!” Liam calls out. He honestly doesn’t know if the angel is in the house or not.  Liam got so caught up in everything that he wasn’t paying attention to Harry’s comings and goings. “Harry!” Liam calls out again.

The sound of wind fills the room and Harry stands there with a worried expression on his face.

“What’s going on?” Harry says with a bit of panic in his voice.

“We’re going to get Niall,” Liam says he walks passed Harry and goes upstairs to grab Niall some clothes, just in case he needs them. Crazy or not, Liam is bringing Niall home and that was that.

“What do you mean?” Harry says following Liam. “Did something happen?”

“I made a mistake, Harry. Niall can’t stay in that place.” Liam says as he walks back down the stairs, clothes in hand and grabs the car keys.

“What if they’re helping him?” Harry asks as they walk out to the car. 

“If he wants to stay, that’s a decision he’s going to make for himself. I forced him into this and I can’t just leave him in there.”

 

They drive all the way to the mental facility and walk in the front doors.  The receptionist is the same one from the night they brought Niall here to begin with.

“Mr. Dwyer, I was—”

“I want to see Niall,” Liam cuts her off.

“I’m afraid that isn’t possible,” the receptionist says.

“I don’t care what rules there are against it, I want to see Niall, now,” Liam says harshly.

“Mr. Dwyer, I was just about to call you,” she says and Liam gives her a worried look. “There was an incident and—”

“An incident? What the—”

Just then, Dr. Lenard comes from the double doors. “Mr. Dwyer…”

“Where’s Niall? What happened?” Liam insists. 

“Niall became uncontrollable, we tried to sedate him, but it wasn’t working and Niall was injured in the process.  During scans we noticed some unusual anomalies…he was in a lot of pain and we felt it necessary to transfer him to Saint Rose’s Hospital.”

“I don’t understand,” Liam says. “What anomalies?”

Dr. Lenard looks at Liam with a soft expression. “When you brought Mr. Horan here, we thought that his issues were mental in nature.  The scans that we took showed something that we’ve never seen before and we determined that whatever it is could be the cause of his outbursts and so we transferred him in the hopes that Saint Rose’s could give him the proper medical attention that he needs. We just aren’t equipped to handle that sort of thing. All of your information has been passed over to the doctors there and they might be able to explain the situation a little better than I can.”

 

“What does this mean, Liam?” Harry asks when they get out to the car.

“It means that I locked him up in there for nothing,” Liam says.

Liam speeds over to Saint Rose’s Hospital, which is only about fifteen minutes away.  It takes them almost three hours before they can talk to a doctor about Niall and his condition.

“We’ve done quite a few scans,” Dr. Reynar says sitting up in his chair behind the desk.  “But from the looks of it, it seems as though his organs are covered in some sort of black coating. It’s attacking his nervous system, which is making him very weak, but his violent outbursts are still ongoing.  We’ve taken to restraining him to the bed since the sedatives that he was given have not worked.”

It feels like some horror story, listening to Dr. Reynar talk about Niall.

“Can you help him?” Liam asks.  He almost doesn’t want to know the answer but he has to.

Dr. Reynar sighs.  “You have to understand, we’ve never seen anything like this before.  He’s been placed under quarantine until we can determine whether or not it is contagious. And with your permission we would like to perform a procedure to examine him further.”

“A procedure?” Liam echoes. “You mean you want to open him up?”

“That’s the idea.” Dr. Reynar suddenly looks a little uncomfortable. “We’ve tried blood samples and they’ve back inconclusive.”

“How long does he have?” Harry asks. 

Harry hadn’t said much since they got there.  He didn’t understand any of this medical stuff, but neither did Liam, but the only thing that Harry did know was that none of this sounded like Niall was getting out of this alive.

“At this rate?” Dr. Reynar looks at the chart again and thinks for a moment.  “I’d say a week, maybe two, and that’s best case scenario. Since we don’t know what it is, we don’t know how it will progress.”

Liam’s been here before. Everything that happened back in September comes rolling back into his mind and he’s yet again faced with losing Niall. It’s worse this time.  Last time, Niall wasn’t going to wake up, this time, Niall is hardly even himself. He can’t pass away peacefully in his sleep and he’s going to die isolated and in pain.

“I’ll give you both a little time to talk things over,” Dr. Reynar says.  “If he has any family, you may want to contact them as well.”

Liam closes his eyes for a moment and breathes in slowly before he gets up from the chair and Harry has to practically jog to keep up with him.

“I can’t do this again,” Liam says rubbing his face.  “We’ve got to get in there to see him somehow and maybe there’s something you can do to help him.”

“I could hardly take his pain away before, Liam. This is way passed my abilities,” Harry says. 

“Then what good are you?” Liam bites back and he regrets it almost immediately. He sees the sad look on Harry’s face, he can see the shame that Harry feels. “Harry, I’m sorry. I didn’t meant that.”

“It’s alright…” Harry says without looking at Liam. “There’s got to be someone you can call.  Someone that knows about this sort of thing.  I’ve never heard of anything like this.” Harry runs a hand through his curly hair. “I can try and see if anyone in heaven has heard of this or—”

And that’s when it hits Liam. “Stay here,” Liam says. “If the doctor comes back, tell him we haven’t made a decision yet.  There’s something I gotta do.”

“Liam, please tell me you aren’t going to make a crossroads deal…” Harry exasperates.

“I’m not Zayn, Harry. Just make sure nothing happens while I’m gone.”

Liam gets in the elevator, goes to the main floor, and out to the parking lot, where Niall’s car sits. He opens the trunk and starts putting everything he needs into an empty duffle bag.  He slings the bag over his shoulder and goes back inside to the elevator where he goes to the basement. 

He tries to find the most secluded area he can possibly find before he starts drawing the sigil on the floor.  He’d put the instructions for this spell on his phone after their last hunt.  It’s complicated and takes a long time to draw and mix the ingredients.  He places a small cut across the palm of his hand and lets the blood drip into the small bowl at the edge of the sigil. He says the incantation and drops a lit match into the bowl causing a small flame to burst and quickly go out.

Liam stands there for a moment. He looks behind him but no one is there.

“You better have a good fucking reason for summoning me,” a familiar voice says and Liam turns to see Louis standing in the center of the sigil.  “Do you not recall me telling you that I’d have no problem killing you the next time that I saw you?”

“You also said you owed us,” Liam says dryly. 

“I owe the Irish one,” Louis counters. “He’s the one that saved me life…not you.”

“Well, I’m asking you to help me save Niall if that makes a difference,” Liam says.

“Aww,” Louis says sarcastically. “What’s the little leprechaun gotten himself into this time?”

“Cut the shit, Louis,” Liam replies. “You mentioned something to me in that factory when we were waiting for that other trickster to show up.  You said something about a friend of yours that started acting strangely and that his insides were covered in black. You also said that you saved him.”

“Is that what this is about?” Louis laughs. “I say a lot of shit, mate. You shouldn’t believe everything a trickster tells you.”

“No,” Liam says shaking his head. “You were telling the truth, I could see it in your eyes.” Liam looks Louis right in the eye. “I’m begging you to help me…to help Niall…and if it’s not the same thing then you can go no questions asked and I’ll never contact you every again. Just please,” Liam pleads. “Just please save my friend.”

Louis sighs and drops his face, rubbing the back of his neck as he thinks things over.  “The Irish one…” he says causally. “Did he die?” Louis looks up at Liam who has a confused look on his face.  “The scars he has from the hellhound and all that business with your other friend dying, did the leprechaun’s heart stop at all during all that?”

“During his surgery. Zayn said that they lost Niall a couple times,” Liam answers.

Louis nods. “It’s rare, but there’s a possibility, if it’s the same sort of thing that happened to me mate, then when the lad died for those seconds or minutes, while he was in the vail, something got hold of him and followed him back.”

“What is it?”

Louis shakes his head. “I don’t really know. It’ll stay dormant for a while, but eventually it shows itself.” Louis says. “The thing feeds off chaos, basically sucks the life out of the host.”

Liam feels his hands start to shake again. “How long do we have?”

“Depends on him,” Louis shrugs. “This thing’s goal is to kill your friend. Once that happens then it can take over.”

“So, why would it try to kill Harry?”

Louis laughs. “Sorry,” he says trying to hide his smile. “I would’ve loved to see that.”

“Louis, this isn’t a joke,” Liam deadpans.

Louis composes himself. “There’s a good chance the thing is afraid of the little feathery chicken. Angels are made of light magic, this thing is the darkest of pieces of shite, probably saw the angel as a threat.”

“Great,” Liam says rubbing his face.

“Where is Hot Wings anyway?” Louis says looking around. He looks at Liam. “Let me guess…He doesn’t know you’re here?”

Liam sighs. “If you couldn’t help then there was no point in telling him.”

“Rather ask for forgiveness than permission, huh?” Louis laughs. Louis looks around again. “Where the hell are we anyway?”

“Saint Rose’s Hospital in New Jersey…come on,” Liam says.  He quickly gathers up all the stuff he needed for the spell and throws it in the duffle bag.

“A hospital? In New Jersey?” Louis sneers as he follows after Liam. “Armpit of America was too nice of a nickname,” he shudders. “Bet tree-topper’s gonna be happy to see me, yeah?”

They get into the elevator. “Louis?” Liam says.

“Yeah?”

“Shut the hell up.”

 

Liam watches Louis closely, as he goes outside to put the stuff back into the car.

He finds Harry in the waiting room on the second floor.

“Where’ve you been?” Harry asks as soon as he sees Liam, but his face melts into a scowl when he sees Louis. “What is he doing here?”

“Louis has experience with this sort of thing…I summoned him, Harry. He’s here to help,” Liam replies.

“Here to help?” Harry repeats staring at Liam like he’s a complete idiot.  Harry grabs Liam and drags him away out of earshot of Louis and anyone else. “What the heck were you thinking? Did it ever occur to you that this could be trick since he’s a trickster? Huh? We tried to kill him, Liam and you really think that he’s just going to help him out of the goodness of his heart? I don’t even know if he has a heart.”

“He owes Niall. It’s as simple as that. Niall saved his life so he’s going to help us save Niall’s and then we’re done and he’s gone.” Liam sighs. “I get the risk here, but you heard the doctor, Niall’s not gonna make it.”

“So, either Louis’ going to help him or kill him faster, that’s really reassuring, Liam!” Harry whispers loudly.

“We don’t have another option here. I trust him…at least with this.”

Harry rolls his eyes and Louis comes over to join their little powwow.

“I don’t mean to break up your little tiff, but how are we going to get Unlucky the Leprechaun out of here?” Louis asks.

“What do you mean?” Liam looks at him.

“I mean that there’s no way that we can do the proper spell here. Chicken Wing here can hardly teleport a conscious human being let alone a half dead one.”

Harry steps toward Louis with the intention of hitting but Liam puts his arm out and stops him. “Not here. Not now,” Liam whispers to him. “Niall’s in quarantine. Getting him out isn’t going to be easy,” he says looking at Louis.

“Quarantine?” Louis repeats looking at Liam. “This just gets better and better.” Louis thinks for a moment and looks around to see if anyone is watching them. “Is he on this floor?” Louis asks and Liam nods. “Alright then,” Louis says and he grabs Harry and Liam by the hand.

“What the hell are you doing?” Harry says trying to get out of Louis’ grip.

“Language, Harold,” Louis jokes as Liam and Harry both feel a strange rippling feeling creep over their bodies and just as fast the feeling fades.

“What did you just do?” Liam says looking at his hands to see if anything is different.

“Glamour spell,” Louis says brightly. “To everyone else in this hospital, we look like three ordinary doctors. Come along,” Louis sings, as he walks through the double doors. 

Liam and Harry walk behind Louis.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Liam whispers.

“No, I’m just following the signs to the infectious disease ward…I’m assuming that’s where they quarantine people,” Louis replies with a shrug.

“I’m going to kill him,” Harry says through gritted teeth.

“Let him help with Niall first before you do anything. Right now, he’s on our side,” Liam whispers back.

“So he wants us to think,” Harry replies.

They turn down another hallway and see a nurse sitting at a reception desk outside a room with Niall’s name written on a small white board.  The three of them approach the room.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” the nurse asks. “This is a closed ward.”

“We were called in on an unusual case,” Louis says before the other two can get an “uh” or an “um” out and screw everything up for all of them.  “We’ve handled a similar case and the patient is not in fact contagious and we will be transferring him to our facility where he can get the proper care.” Louis pulls a clipboard from thin air behind his back and hands it to the nurse. 

“I wasn’t notified of any transfer,” she says looking over the paperwork. “But everything seems to be in order. I’ll just have to call Dr. Reynar down here to confirm this.”

“Very well, sound like a plan!” Louis says brightly. “I just want to have a quick word with you concerning something on the patient’s charts. It will only take a moment. Meanwhile, my associates will check the patient’s vitals.” Louis waves Harry and Liam off and they go into the room while Louis talks to the nurse.

Liam feels a cold rush run up his spine when he sees the state Niall’s in.

Niall’s wrists and ankles are strapped down to the bed.  His skin is pale and eyes sunken.  His breathing is short and rapid. 

The only time Liam had ever seen Niall breathe like that was during an anxiety attack, but now it was Niall’s new normal.   

Liam walks up to the bed and gently places his hand on Niall’s and to his surprise Niall’s eyes flicker up to meet Liam’s.

“Liam?” Niall chokes out. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

“Yeah, it’s me, Nialler,” Liam says. It takes everything he has not to cry.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Niall says quietly between labored breaths.

“It’s alright,” Liam reassures him. “We’re going to get you out of here. We’re going home.”

The slightest hint of a smile pulls at the corner of Niall’s lips. “I thought I was gonna die alone,” Niall says slowly. “I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

Liam shakes his head. “You’re not going to have to Niall…we’re going to get you home and we’re gonna save you.”  Liam starts undoing the straps around Niall’s wrists just as Louis walks in the room.

“We’ve got about ten minutes to get out of here,” Louis says wheeling in a wheelchair.

“What did you do?” Harry looks at him.

“Well, she was going to call that other doctor so I knocked her out.”

“Louis!” Liam says in a hushed tone.

“Don’t get you’re panties in a bunch. I didn’t hurt her.” Louis situates the wheelchair next to the bed. “Alright, Chicken Wing,” he says pointing at Harry. “You grab one side of the leprechaun and Liam you grab the other and I will get this thingy and unhook all of this crap.” Louis starts pulling all the heart monitor things off of Niall and Liam gets situated on one side of Niall, but Harry doesn’t move.

“Harry, come on,” Liam urges him, but Harry shakes his head and takes a step back.

“Alright, I’ll grab him, you get the baggy thing,” Louis says pointing at the IV bag.

Very carefully, they get Niall to sit up.  Liam can see the pain on his face, but they don’t have much time.  Even when Niall digs his nails into Liam’s skin, they don’t stop.

Liam and Louis put Niall’s arms over their shoulders and lift him off the bed and into the wheelchair. Liam takes the IV bag from Harry and hangs it off the stand on the back of the chair.

“Liam,” Niall chokes out and he grabs Liam’s hand. 

Liam kneels down beside him and takes Niall’s hand. “We’re taking you home, alright? I’ll never leaving again, Nialler.” Liam stands up and starts wheeling Niall out of the room. 

He sees the nurse on the ground, passed out, but like Louis said, unharmed. 

They make their way to the elevators and so far, no one’s asked any questions. 

“When we get to the lobby, you guys hang back with Niall and I’ll pull the car ‘round,” Liam says quietly.

“You really think no one will question why we’re just hanging out with a patient in the lobby?” Louis snickers.

“As you like to point out, you’re a fucking trickster,” Liam says angrily. “Make something up.”

When they get down to the lobby, Louis wheels Niall over and Liam quickly goes out to the parking lot.  It feels like it takes ages for the car to start and he keeps looking inside to see if anyone has confronted the others, but he can’t see them from where the car is parked.

Liam pulls the car up to the curb and Louis and Harry bring Niall out. Liam helps get him into the backseat. “Louis, stay back there with Niall,” Liam says and Louis makes a face at him before he takes the wheelchair and pushes it back toward the entrance making the automatic doors open.

Liam glares at Harry and the angel seems to understand what Liam’s issue is and it has nothing to do with Louis. 

 

“How’s he doing back there, Louis?” Liam asks when there a safe distance from the hospital.

Louis picks up Niall’s hand, Liam sees Louis squint in pain momentarily, before he checks Niall’s pulse. 

“I think we’re in the range of definitely could be worse, but is still pretty bad,” Louis says.

Liam can’t stop checking on Niall in the rearview mirror for the entire drive home.  With every glance comes regret and pity.  When we last saw Niall, he still looked like Niall and now, he looked like a shell of the happy-go-lucky kid that Niall was.

They’d gotten hurt before in the past, but the last few months had been hell for Niall, like some cosmic force had it out for him.  Liam can’t help but look at Harry with that thought.  Harry’s behavior was getting on Liam’s nerves.  He gets it, Niall, or at least something in Niall, wanted Harry dead, but there is something else going on that Harry won’t talk to Liam about.

Whatever the reason, this isn’t the time for Harry to be pulling this crap.  Liam needs him. Niall needs him. Not just because he’s an angel…to be honest, that had nothing to do with why they need Harry around. It’s because Harry fits with them. Everything that Louis said in that abandoned factory about Harry not aging and watching as Liam and Niall became frail and die of old age is Liam’s dream.  He wants himself and Niall live long enough for that to happen.  Live long enough that what’s happening in this very moment is a long forgotten and distant memory. 

But if Niall dies, Liam doesn’t know if he could stand seeing Harry every day.  Harry was there when Niall needed him most, but now, if Liam loses Niall to this, Harry will be a constant reminder of his own failure when it came to saving his best friend.

They make it back to the house.

“Harry, get the front door,” Liam says as he opens the car door.

“You need help?” Louis asks.

Liam puts Niall’s arm over his shoulder and very carefully lifts up out of the car, with the IV on Niall’s lap and his arm under Niall’s legs; he carries Niall into the house and straight up the stairs to Niall’s room.  His arms are shaking by the time he lays Niall down on the bed.

They hook the IV bag to the bedpost and get Niall as comfortable as they possibly can.  He looks even worse in the lighting, which was only the soft light coming from the lamp on the nightstand.

“Liam?” Niall says when everything settles.

Liam sits on the edge of the bed and takes Niall’s hand.

“Thank you,” Niall says in between breaths. “Thank you, f-for taking me home.”

“I should have never taken you to that place, Niall. That’s not what you wanted.”

Niall squeezes Liam’s hand. “I don’t wanna die, Liam. I made a promise that I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“I know, Nialler. I’m not going to let you die,” Liam replies.

There’s a moment just then, where Niall looks like Niall. He looks content and safe. And for the first time in what seems like a long time, Niall falls asleep.

Liam sighs and stands up. “Harry, can you watch over him for a minute?”

Harry gives a small nod, he knows Liam’s mad at him. He comes over and pulls up a chair to Niall’s bed.

Liam grabs Louis, who’s been standing there in the doorway watching them and drags him down the hallway a little ways.

“What’s with the angry face, Liam?” Louis says trying to get free of Liam’s grip.

Liam finally lets go and looks Louis dead in the eye. “I swear to god, if you hurt him in any even miniscule way, I will kill you.”

“Look,” Louis says in a more serious tone, dropping his act. “We have a deal here. I might be a trickster, but when I make a deal like this, I stick to it. I’m a god, but I still have morals. The Irish kid saved me life, saving his is the least I can do.”

“Good,” Liam says. He shakes his head and closes his eyes for a moment; maybe he was acting too. He couldn’t take a risk…not when Niall’s life is on the line.  He breathes in and out slowly.  When he opens his eyes he looks at Louis.  “So, what do we have to do for this spell or whatever you’re going to do?”

Louis looks at Liam. “First of all, this is going to sound awful given everything you just said to him in there and I’ll admit it doesn’t look too good on me either but—”

“Louis!” Liam cuts the trickster off. “What the hell do we have to do to get rid of this thing?”

Louis sighs and rubs his neck before he finally looks Liam in the eye. “Niall has to die…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY Louis' back! But "oh shit!" to the rest of it!
> 
> Probably two more chapters left in what I refer to as "part one" of this fic since it's so long. 
> 
> It's honestly so weird writing some of these scenes because I came up with them over two years ago now.
> 
> As always I really enjoy comments and if you found anything confusing, just let me know and I can clarify anything in a comment or an upcoming chapter. 
> 
> Next chapter title is from "Through the Dark"----"Hope Your Heart Is Strong Enough"

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think or message me on Tumblr (irishsunshine-n-l-l-h). I haven't decided on an update plan yet but I'm hoping for a new chapter every two weeks. This will be written in more of a episode to episode format. Each chapter will act as its own story (plot/ climax etc) but will all fit together in the same big story (season) and flow pretty well from one chapter to the next (it just means that a lot will happen in each chapter).


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